Penticton’s B.C. Beverage Technology Access Centre gets new leadership

PENTICTON – Wes Peterson has a challenging task in front of him.

He has been hired as manager of the recently-announced British Columbia Beverage Technology Access Centre, which aims to provide technical, analytical and business services to small- and medium-sized distilleries, cideries, breweries and wineries, focusing first on the businesses in the Okanagan, Shuswap and Similkameen region.

Opening its doors for service in Penticton this fall, its mission is to will draw on expertise resident at Okanagan College and elsewhere to help those businesses grow.

“The plan for the BCBTAC has been well laid out,” Peterson, who brings with him experience in owning and operating a successful and growing brewery in Seattle, said in a press release. “The challenge will be in bringing it to life as envisioned, acquiring and setting up the equipment, and developing the processes and policies that will guide the technology access centre.”

The BCBTAC, which will be headquartered in Penticton, is an Okanagan College initiative that is supported by five years of funding, totalling $1.75 million, from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. It is also supported by the College and by the industry as well.

Peterson is the centre’s first employee. 

“Wes’ management experience with customer-focused enterprises, his background as a technologist, and his approach and leadership with a successful craft brewery in an intensely competitive environment commended him for this role," Dr. Andrew Hay, Okanagan College’s vice president education said, in a press release.

The BCBTAC is the second technology access centre in British Columbia. The other is in Victoria, at Camosun College. The network of technology access centres across Canada is funded by the federal government, and is focused on addressing the applied research and innovation needs of local companies.

When Okanagan College’s successful application for a Beverage Technology Access Centre was announced in June, there were 19 craft cideries, 219 wineries, 16 craft distilleries and 24 craft breweries within the College’s catchment area, which stretches from Revelstoke to the U.S. border.

For more information on the BCBTAC, visit www.bcbtac.ca.

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