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WHO WE ARE

Premier Whisky was born out of the enthusiasm for the ‘water of life’ shared by a number of whisky experts who recognised the growing interest across the Asian market for this much-loved traditional Scottish spirit—and its truly spectacular investment potential as a tangible asset. For several years the company, while acquiring and trading a selection of rare and highly collectable single malts, Premier Whisky has been quietly pioneering a brand new paradigm in whisky investment. By selecting and bottling only the most aged and rare malts in Scotland, we are making them available for the first time ‘en primeur’ to the world.

MEET THE TEAM

Our ‘Company of Connoisseurs’

Bob

BOB
MCNAB

Managing Director
Charles Maclean

CHARLES
MACLEAN

Chief Whisky Advisor
David Slee1

DAVID
 SLEE

Business Development Manager
Simon

SIMON
 HARRALL

Compliance Manager
Kathy Bonhams

KATHY
 AU

Sales Manager - Hong Kong
tony

TONY
HUANG

Product Development Director
screenshot-2019-10-17-at-7.11.36-pm

ADAM
WISE

Creative Director
Theodore

THEODORE TSE
 謝銘樺

Distribution Manager - Asia Pacific Region
1

MICHAEL
 COTTINGHAM

Taiwan & China Advisor

BOB MCNAB

Managing Director

Bob McNab has had wide-ranging multi-disciplinary experience across the fields of branding, advertising, marketing and publishing, during a career spanning over four decades, garnering international awards in each along the way. Originally a graphic design graduate, he soon established an award-winning studio in London’s Covent Garden. It was with his move to Hong Kong in the late 1980s that Bob was able to gain an invaluable education in the hard-nosed discipline of direct marketing at Ogilvy & Mather.

In subsequent years he has worked for just about every multi-national advertising agency, either in-house or an a freelance basis, broadening his talents as art director, copywriter and indeed, illustrator. His last in-house position was Executive Creative Director for Rapp Collins Worldwide. Along the way Bob has never forgotten his Scottish heritage, publishing a Scottish cultural magazine, as well as publishing and freely distributing worldwide a Burns Supper Songbook. He has also been known to sip a dram or two…

CHARLES MACLEAN

Chief Whisky Advisor

Charles MacLean has been writing about Scotch whisky for thirty-six years, and has published seventeen books on the subject. He was described by The Times as “Scotland’s leading whisky expert” in 2014.

He sits on several judging panels, including that of the International Wine & Spirits Competition, has chaired the nosing panel of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society since 1992, and advises many whisky companies on cask selection and flavour profiling.

He was the founding editor of Whisky Magazine and foreign editor of Whisky (Russia); writes regularly for several international magazines and websites and is a frequent commentator on TV and radio. He was chief presenter of the TV channel www.singlemalt.tv and starred in Ken Loach’s film The Angels Share, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

In 2009 he was elected Master of the Quaich, in 2012 won the I.W.S.C.’s ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ and in 2016 was inducted into the Whisky Hall of Fame.

His book “Scotch Whisky : a liquid history” was the first spirits book to win a James Beard award.

SIMON HARRALL

Compliance Manager

Simon Harrall worked in fiduciary and compliance management for over 32 years, having worked for Banco Santander, Societe General, and established his own fiduciary firms.
Holding a law degree, Simon acts as our in house compliance manager, writes contracts, sales and purchase agreements, and deals with regularity matters, as well as managing compliance for the business, assisting all parties to have sound legal substance to all arrangements.
Simon has created external companies trust businesses, as a consultant, and acts as their internal compliance manager as well within Hong Kong.

He brings quality control on all future sales and purchases agreements, for all clients to achieve comfort in the process driven systems that he has incorporated into Premier Whisky Limited.

Simon enjoys football, as an avid Tottenham Hotspur fan, hiking and spending time with his son.

TONY HUANG

Product Development Director

Tony’ is located in Taiwan where he leads from the front in the whisky packaging industry. His work is considered by many to be the very best in the industry and his hand crafted box presentations are used by the likes of Karuizawa, Gordon & Macphail, Glenfarclas and more. Tony is Premier Whisky’s exclusive design consultant who helped achieve a stunning box and bottle design for our latest Gordon & Macphail 70 year old, releasing November 2019.

ADAM WISE

Creative Director

Adam Wise has had an illustrious, creative career history. This has included curation of global live events, working for 10 years in production, design, decor and general creative concepts for large events, festivals, and corporate brand promotional activations. In recent years he has gained notoriety as digital designer, creative director & consultant. Adam has played a behind-the-scenes role in the creating brand identities for companies in the realms of fashion, nightlife, cosmetics, restaurants, mobile applications and many more. His latest and most significant work to date has been the consultation and implementation of all design assets for Premier Whisky. The brief was to deliver a brand identity that sits comfortably within the modern digital age, bringing a new lease of life to an old industry, whilst successfully retaining the classic whisky aesthetic.

MICHAEL COTTINGHAM

Taiwan & China Advisor

Michael began a business career in Asia, setting up and operating several companies in the F&B field. He maintains directorships of several food and entertainment outlets in China, notably the Sasha’s and Zapata’s groups.

In a shift of direction, Michael set up Cottingham & Co. in 1992, and began importing alcoholic beverages into Taiwan. He grew Cottingham into a leading service provider for international premium beverage brands in Taiwan handling sales, distribution, marketing and brand development. Carlsberg became a partner in Cottingham in 2008, and the company was renamed Carlsberg-Cottingham. Carlsberg have now bought the company, renaming it Carlsberg (Taiwan).

Michael set up Cottingham (Shanghai) in 2010, and the company imports international brands into the vibrant China market, under the leadership of my son, Andrew. The focus is currently on Single Malt Scotch, and they also import Tito’s Handmade Vodka.

In Taiwan, the focus on importing and marketing international beverage brands continues with Cottingham Ltd. Cottingham handles Tomatin Single Malt Scotch, Antiquary, Lismore and Big T. Cottingham also handles the Douglas Laing range of Single Malt Scotches. We are also sole agents for the Brown-Forman range (Jack Daniels, Woodford Reserve, Early Times, Gentleman Jack, Herradura, El Jimador, Finlandia, Chambord, and Sothern Comfort).

The Cottingham Group now represents and provides services to international alcohol beverage brands throughout Greater China, including China itself, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

In October 2012 Michael was honoured to be inducted into the “Keepers of the Quaich” for services to Scotch Whisky.