Beer Institute Honors Eric Shepard with Jeff Becker Beer Industry Service Award

Today, the Beer Institute awarded Eric Shepard with the 2021 Jeff Becker Beer Industry Service Award for his dedication to providing thorough, accurate, and timely information both to and about America’s Beer Industry. After 44 years of reporting on the nation’s beer industry at Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS, Eric retired last month as the publication’s vice president and executive editor.

The Beer Institute presented Bill with the award as part of its Annual Membership Meeting in Washington, DC.

“Eric’s high standards and shrewd insights set the standard for journalistic excellence, and the American beer industry is better for it,” said Jim McGreevy, president and CEO of the Beer Institute. “Eric loves beer and the beer industry, and I will always admire his ability to draw out the most relevant points from economic data, policy discussions, and legal briefs to both keep us informed and provide meaningful context and analysis.”

“Eric Shepard is a stellar writer, editor, thinker and doer as well as my good friend for the last 50 years,” said Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS. “Eric had an exceptional 44-year career at Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS as a prolific, versatile and conscientious writer but also just a great guy to have around. He was the keeper of the flame on the numbers, our chief legal and policy writer/editor and so much more, and he also served as an outstanding mentor to our younger generation of writers.”

Eric joined Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS in August 1977 and retired in August of this year. He researched, wrote, and edited the company’s flagship newsletter and BMI’s beer-focused INSIGHTS Express. For decades, Eric edited Alcohol Issues INSIGHTS, a newsletter covering policy issues and health research. For many years he prepared and edited BMI’s annual statistical publication, Beer Industry Update, and led the number-crunching for special reports like The Long View and Ten Years After.

Eric graduated from Cornell University with a BA in Liberal Arts. He’s an avid reader and music-lover who enjoys hiking with his wife, two sons and the rest of the Shepard clan. A lifelong resident of Rockland County, 20 miles north of New York City, Eric regularly visits the Catskills, where the family has vacationed for more than 30 years.

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