Our Team

Amy Holmwood, founder of Holistic Spirits Co., is a health and wellness entrepreneur and advocate of holistic health solutions. Amy founded Origen Vodka, a gluten-free and non-GMO superfood vodka spirit, in response to the lack of innovation within the spirits industry, coupled with the growing global movement towards a more health-conscious approach to all aspects of life, including a desire for more sustainable manufacturing practices.

Inspired by personal experiences with health issues since her childhood, Amy began early on in her life to embrace healthy eating. As she grew older and more aware of the need for innovation in the world of health and wellness, she was drawn to the genomic sciences that focus on natural alternatives. Rather than rely solely on traditional Western medicine, Amy favors the use of Nutrigenomics and Biohacking; she sees these innovative fields as the future of disease prevention and in the treatment of aging. Amy has also long been engaged in the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) market, an emerging area in the health and wellness community and one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy.

Amy comes by her passions honestly; her paternal Great Grandfather was a beer industry mogul who oversaw Canadian Breweries, Ltd, now under the Molson Coors umbrella, and her maternal Great Grandmother was the pioneering industrial engineer Lillian Gilbreth, who was known to say: “Be a genius at the art of living.”

It’s not surprising then that Amy has adopted a fervent interest in pushing limits and contributing to disruptive innovation. When faced without an alternative drinking option that spoke to her health consciousness, she decided to create her own.

Amy earned a BBA in International Business from George Washington University. She holds a Nutrition Science Certification from the Stanford Center for Health Education, and a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology Enterprise from John Hopkins University.

Edward Leisher, CLU — is a leading entrepreneur, founder, CEO and innovator in the financial services industry for over 40 years with achieving multimillion dollar successful exits in both the public and private markets, after serving in the United States Air Force. He has worked alongside his wife, Amy Holmwood for over 2 decades building financial enterprises and engaging in private equity investing in the health, wellness and functional food sectors. Ed’s business management skills will bring a rare breadth of experience to the day to day operations of Origen.

Fernando Saralegui is a chef, author, hospitality professional, and culinary consultant with over four decades of experience in the development of consumer packaged goods. 

Fernando, who was born in Havana, Cuba, received his B.A. in Theater Set Design from UC Berkeley, where he also began a culinary career at the legendary Chez Panisse Restaurant. Since then he has opened restaurants from coast to coast, including New York City’s Alva and L-Ray. 

In 2001, he became the Executive Director of the Austin Food Festival. He is the author of “Our Latin Table,” which garnered an invitation to cook “Cuban Thanksgiving” at the James Beard House. He recently completed his second book, “Best Eats Havana,” about Cuba’s burgeoning restaurant, bar and nightlife scene, which garnered an encore engagement at the James Beard House. 

Fernando is currently developing a curriculum for “Farm 2 Business,” a best practices executive training program. 

Fernando is known for helping his clients realize their goals in a timely, cost-effective and meaningful manner. He enjoys creating culinary content and innovative compelling destinations to meet, eat and imbibe. In his spare time, he enjoys the art of bread baking.

For Nick Mautone, the spark came as a young kid growing up in Mt. Vernon where he spent weekends making cheese and handmade pasta for his dad’s specialty food business. While he dreamed of becoming a NASA scientist (and still loves looking up at the stars), he worked his way through school in restaurants—bussing tables and backing bars. Eventually he and his siblings opened an innovative pizzeria, American Pie, on the Upper West Side. Science became a hobby, and restaurants became his life. 

Since then, Nick has worked with some of the most iconic and influential restaurants in the world including Gotham Bar & Grill, Hudson River Club, and most notably, Gramercy Tavern where he was managing partner alongside Danny Meyer and Tom Colicchio for seven years and helped define and nurture a fledgling idea Danny and the group coined called “Enlightened Hospitality.”  

With decades of experience behind him, in 2003, Nick founded his management and consulting business, Mautone Enterprises. The business was born of a desire to share his process, experience, mentorship, and leadership. Whether building a strong foundation for a first-time restaurateur, or turning around a big ship on the wrong course, for Nick the process is about grass roots collaboration, helping chefs and owners come together, developing systems for success, and digging deep into the numbers and the P&L, to uncover what needs to be tweaked, edited, or completely uprooted, delivering holistic success—including profitability, streamlined and efficient operations, a sense of community, harmony, and growth among all staff, and sustainability of concept. 

Over the years his clients have included The Television Food Network, and separately celebrity chef Rachael Ray, The Atlantic Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, 6-Penn Kitchen in Pittsburgh, Citarella, Geoffrey Zacharian’s The Carlton Hotel and Country in midtown Manhattan, il Buco in Noho, Apiary in the East Village, the Park Central Hotel and it’s boutique sibling, the West House, Southgate at the Jumeirah Essex House Hotel, and Northwestern University Hospital in Chicago. 

In 2013, Nick was tapped by CohnReznick LLP, one of the largest accounting firms in the US, to become its hospitality guru—essentially bringing him into projects in need of restaurant therapy and guiding those in the throes of the opening process, working with brands such as The Standard Hotel. 

Most recently, Nick was brought on by the global real estate firm Tishman Speyer to rebrand, reimage, retool, and reinvent the historic Rainbow Room. Under his leadership, the Rainbow Room was reinvigorated as a true historic icon and one of the top 50 highest grossing food service establishments in the world. 

For the first time in its history, Tischman created a new position for Nick—Managing Director of Hospitality—where he continued to oversee the iconic Rainbow Room, assisting on the new vision and retail renovation of Rockefeller Center and advancing hospitality projects within the firm outside of NY.  

In addition to restaurants, Nick has worked with numerous beverage companies to assist in their marketing & brand management, training of sales & distribution teams, new product development, trendspotting and mixology.  He was the Grey Goose Brand Ambassador and On-Premise consultant from 2005 through 2012 and has worked with startup Brands VeeV Acai Vodka, Beleza Pura Cachaca and others.

Nick is also an author of several books including “Raising the Bar; Better Drinks, Better Entertaining” (Artisan, 2004), and “The Artisan Kitchen: Holiday Cocktails” (Artisan 2017). Artisan will publish Summer Cocktails in Spring 2021, and Classic Cocktails in Winter 2021. 

Nick is currently working on a couple of other books — “Sundays, Holidays and Meatballs,” a family history and recipe book, and a memoir entitled “A Life Behind Bars: Lessons & Learnings from My 40 Year Journey in the Bar and Hospitality Business,” along with a companion podcast. 

Nick is a strong believer in active participation in the community and has worked with many local and national charities. He has been an advisor and fundraiser to non-profits focused on childhood education and on hunger relief and poverty alleviation. 

These days, Nick lives in Seattle where he hangs out with his family—his daughter Alexandra (28), son Nicholas (14), and wife Terri Ludwig. He is an avid reader and cyclist, and a terrible but enthusiastic amateur astronomer and science buff. His favorite pastimes also include pickleball, paddle boarding, kayaking, and (hopefully, possibly, someday!) golf and tennis.

Nathalie Chevreau, PhD, has devoted her career to designing, conducting and directing scientifically-sound product research and in nutrition and chemistry for the dietary supplement and cosmetic industries.

Nathalie began her career as the Scientific and Product Developer Director for a marketing company in the fields of weight loss and advanced cosmetics. She has held long-term executive positions as the Chief Science Officer at Vascular Health Science LLC and as the Senior VP of Research and Development at LifeVantage Corporation where she was responsible for new product ideation, product discovery, and scientific partnership. She has spearheaded new research projects to develop the science behind dietary supplements and skin care products to support safety and compliance with FDA and FTC regulatory frameworks.

In addition to her PhD, Nathalie has a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University, and an MS in Food and Nutrition from University of Utah. She is a prolific researcher and writer who has published 11 peer-reviewed scientific articles. She holds three granted patents.

Felicity Fromholz is the owner of The Bad Plaid Company, a boutique consulting + growth marketing firm specializing in beauty, lifestyle + fashion. A Jane-of-all-trades, she also teaches sociology at Temple College and is on the advisory board of the Customer Experience Certificate Program for the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business.

Prior to starting her own agency, Felicity was the Director of Partnerships + Innovation for  Texas Beauty Labs, a women-owned + run contract personal care manufacturer and, #358 on the 2018 INC 5000 list of fastest-growing companies. Before her time at TBL, Felicity spent a number of years in the subscription box industry, working as a Program Manager for the SaaS platform, Cratejoy, and as the Director of Product Development for the e-commerce solutions giant, Evolucity Commerce. There, Felicity led the team that brought you the popular beauty sample subscription box, Beauty Box 5, launched the first-ever monthly, luxury, lifestyle subscription box, Lilee, and launched numerous, successful health and beauty care lines.

Braeden Bumpers is the head distiller and owner of McClintock Distilling in Frederick, Maryland, one of the premier craft & sustainable distilleries in the US. His leadership in the arena of sustainability is getting the attention of the entire spirits industry as well as his superior gin distilling techniques using the highest quality grains and botanicals. 

Braeden takes pride in his Irish heritage and his middle class upbringing. Braeden has a post graduate degree in chemistry, enjoys watching sports, playing chess and meditating. He has brought tremendous energy and wisdom to distilling spirits for Holistic Spirits Company and we are proud to partner with him. 

Mark is a dynamic and deadline-driven video and visual content producer with 20 years of professional experience in media and entertainment production environments. He is a creative visionary with expertise in building long-lasting partnerships, managing contracts, and organizing workflows.

Mark manages all aspects of production and post-production of television commercials, TV shows, and feature-length documentaries. His expertise includes wide-ranging knowledge of film and video projects from inception to completion.