Presenting Slate of Candidates for the 2018–2020 CRG Advisory Council

The election process for the 2018-2020 CRG Advisory Council Elections is officially underway. After several weeks of consideration, a representative group of CRG members has put forward a slate for the three available seats on the council.

We would like to extend our thanks to the Nominating Committee – Ellie Hudson, Joe Marrocco, Lisa Lawson, Joanna Alm, Filip Bartelak, Filip Åkerblom, and Konrad Oleksak – for their efforts in delivering such a talented slate of candidates for this year’s election!

Meet your new Slate: Monika Palova, Darius Vezelis, and Chris Hallien.

Monika Palova

Dublin, Ireland

Monika Palova is originally from Slovakia but she spent her whole adulthood living in Ireland. She’s the Roastery Manager at 3fe Coffee in Dublin where she is responsible for everything from roast profiles and quality control, to fixing label printers. She began working in coffee over a decade ago but it wasn’t until she began to learn more about specialty coffee and spending almost four months in Brazil that she made it her career choice.

In 2011, after working at 3fe for just couple of months, she competed in the National Barista Championships in her native Slovakia – which she ended up winning – both that year, and the year after that.

To continue advancing, she moved from the coffee bar to the brand new 3fe Roastery in 2014, and began to acquire the craft and magic of bean-browning. Monika’s background is in science which always makes her want to experiment and improve her roasting practices. She believes the real magic happens on the farms, and ‘’we as roasters should always aspire to do the coffee and producers justice’’.

Chris Hallien

Innsbruck, Austria

Chris Hallien is a dedicated and passionate professional with a wide range of experience in the coffee industry. He began his career in coffee twenty years ago having held positions in several functions. Chris is a coffee scientist and has spent a large portion of his career exploring green coffee quality and its relationship to coffee roasting. He held the positions of Director of Roasting and Director of Coffee at Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea and as Quality Specialist at Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee. He is equally proficient roasting in smaller scale operations as he is in larger scale facilities. Chris has several years of experience in green coffee quality, as green coffee buying and working with producers at origin.

He has served on several Cup of Excellence juries, volunteered with the CQI Coffee Corps on multiple projects and contributed to the WCR in its genesis stages. He has been active in several coffee organizations as a trainer, presenter and eager contributor. Chris is a long-standing member of and presenter for the Roaster’s Guild and the Specialty Coffee Association, where he currently serves on the Standards Committee. He is a licensed Q grader and C grader, a Certified Food Scientist, Sensory Scientist, and is Product Manager for Cropster Roast and Cropster Lab.

Darius Vezelis

Kaunas, Lithuania

Working in specialty coffee business since 2007. Always was active SCAE member. Dedicated my time for organizing Barista champs in Lithuania for 6 years as acting SCAE National coordinator. Established my roasting company in 2012. Want to bring and share knowledge with all roasting guild members.