David Vitale is the founder and owner of Starward Whisky, the Melbourne distillery he established in 2007 with a distinctly Australian idea: to create an approachable whisky shaped by Australian red-wine barrels and Melbourne’s famously changeable climate.

Starward has grown into an internationally recognised distillery, named Most Awarded International Distillery at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in both 2022 and 2024. After fully reacquiring Starward in 2026, David returned to lead the business into its next chapter. That same year, he was inducted into the Australian Distillers Hall of Fame for his contribution to the industry.

A founder, distiller and entrepreneur, David brings a candid perspective on what it takes to build a world whisky brand.

I spent 18 years at Glen Scotia Distillery in Campbeltown, including a decade serving as Master Distiller, initially as the Distillery Manager. During this period, I played a key role in the distillery’s transformation and international rise, coinciding with the resurgence of Campbeltown as one of Scotland’s most respected whisky-producing regions and the renewed appreciation of its distinctive character.

Today, I serve as Master Distiller and Group Whisky Operations Director for the Langjiu Group in Sichuan, China, where I am leading the development of one of the world’s most ambitious whisky projects. With flavour, authenticity and innovation at its heart, the project seeks to establish a distinctive Chinese whisky identity while drawing upon the traditions and craftsmanship of Scotland’s great whisky-making heritage.

Paul Warathep Chandeeraj joined International Beverage in the UK in 2012, initially focusing on developing key trade relationships across London. During this time, he discovered a deep passion for whisky, sparking a journey that would shape his career in premium spirits.

After moving to Thailand in 2015, Paul quickly established himself as a leading figure in trade and consumer education across International Beverage’s premium spirits portfolio. His infectious enthusiasm, extensive category knowledge, and engaging, relaxed presentation style led to his appointment in 2016 as International Beverage’s first dedicated Portfolio Brand Ambassador for Asia.

Since then, Paul has travelled extensively throughout the region, sharing his passion for fine spirits with audiences ranging from curious newcomers to seasoned connoisseurs. He has delivered hundreds of masterclasses, industry seminars, and consumer experiences, helping to build appreciation for premium whisky and spirits across Asia.

Paul is the Brand Ambassador for an exceptional portfolio of award-winning brands, including the Scottish single malt whiskies Old Pulteney, Balblair, Speyburn, and anCnoc, as well as Thailand’s acclaimed Prakaan Single Malt Whisky, Phraya Rum and Mekhong Rum.

Ariel Miao is one of the first pioneer marketers in China started building Scotch whisky category in the past 17 years, to crack the challenge of low Scotch penetration in China (<1%), and she has done remarkable works to accelerate the Scotch development and consumer recruitment.

Ariel’s career in whisky started after joining Diageo in 2008. During her first 6 years tenure, she brought in 120+ new malt products to China and started to introduce Scotch whisky as a category when she begun to manage Malts portfolio in 2011.

With her passion and rich experience in whisky, she was promoted to lead the Whisky Category Development in 2016, building Scotch from the top with intensity and scale through key growth derivers like Whisky Summit, Whisky Boutique and Diageo Whisky Academy, to accelerate Diageo’s business expansion,

To support category expansion, the “Whisky Summit” program she led in 2017 engaged over 500 key wholesalers, top medias, internal gurus and whisky enthusiasts. It has been recognized as the landmark event leading the Scotch trend development in China. She also works with top alcohol retailors opening 11x “Whisky Boutiques” to fuel up Diageo Scotch shelf share growth, this contemporary retail space has made Scotch inspirational in recruiting 10K+ HNWIs per year.

She is also a key person in driving Scotch education in category level. “The Journey to Single Malts” program she created in 2011 was the 1st mentoring program in China introducing Scotch malts in category level, more than 1200+ HNWIs attended the experience and it achieved +28% Malts sales growth. In 2016 she launched Diageo Whisky Academy which is a program built by her team from scratch working directly with whisky gurus Charles MacLean and Dave Broom, a 3 levels of whisky learning experience, it’s the 1st consumer paid whisky mentoring program in China. So far DWA has engaged with over 2.6m+ consumers, over 28,000 participants have joined DWA programs physically with 95% positive feedbacks,

She was nominated as the Keeper of the Quaich in 2019.