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THERE ARE CERTAIN PEOPLE in the grand specialty-coffee world whose contributions to the record of our industry's triumphs are so great that we reference them by first name only. Among them are George (Howell), Aida (Batlle), Duane (Sorenson), and of course Susie (Spindler), the longstanding visionary and champion of the Cup of Excellence program. OK, it helps that there aren't a lot of Georges, Aidas, Duanes, or Susies in specialty coffee for some reason, but truly these people—and maybe another handful of others I can think of—are responsible for some of the most influential moves anyone's made in our industry. What's interesting about this to me is how intertwined the coffee stories of these particular four people are, and that's because of one of them, Susie Spindler. You can call her Susie. After earning a graduate degree in international management and marketing, Susie's first job was in Chicago in market research, and, while there, probably drinking a cup of coffee, "on a whim, I answered an employment ad in the newspaper that began with, 'Do you enjoy coffee?'" she says. "It was more out of curiosity than anything." She got the job and took the job, and Susie's coffee story had begun. She worked for the International Coffee Organization (ICO) managing programs designed to increase coffee consumption among young Americans, and that resulted in the formation of the Coffee Development Group (CDG), which was, she says, "put to the task of field marketing, quality education, and promotion to raise the quality, the image, and the pizazz of coffee." Susie Spindler Making the Dream of Big Money for Great Coffee Come True by Sarah Allen MASTER 83 www.baristamagazine.com B o o k 4 7 - 9 2 . i n d d 8 3 Book 47-92.indd 83 5 / 1 5 / 1 4 1 0 : 4 7 P M 5/15/14 10:47 PM