Coffee experience, creativity and expertise

Jan Anderson, President

Jan has successfully navigated periods of big change and growth in the coffee industry and in consumer interests for over 25 years. Her extensive experience and forward momentum keep her excited by both the tradition and newness of coffee as it is constantly reinvented, rebranded, and re-experienced. Consumers and business models change. Jan, along with the powerful and dynamic PQC team, anticipate these changes and the creative opportunities they provide for companies seeking relevance in the evolving world of coffee.

Prior to joining Premium Quality Consulting, Jan founded and led three start-up companies in the coffee industry. By attracting a dynamic team, she built the successful sales and distribution company that introduced illy, an early imported coffee to the NY/NJ market. Purchased in 1993, this company became the basis for illy’s North American headquarters. During the same time period, Jan served as CEO for Espressoworks, Inc., a spin off created to optimize the rental of commercial coffee equipment in the NY/NJ market. In 1999, as CEO, Jan launched FrancisFrancis! in North America, an upscale lifestyle brand and the first company to bring elegant design and color to small kitchen electrics with their line of quality home espresso machines. In 2005, FrancisFrancis! was purchased by a global coffee brand in order to complete its upscale consumer coffee offer. Most recently, Jan has applied her creative talent in marketing and business to develop the consumer brand experience in the on-premise business in North America for the global gourmet coffee company illy Caffe.

Dan McCloskey, Founder & Chief Creative Officer

Dan is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Premium Quality Consulting. He has spent a lifetime in the wholesale coffee business, selling, managing and marketing. He is known for his creative approach to problem solving, his sense of humor, and a capability to sustain effort against complex goals over time. Years in the business translate to a readiness to add value.

Like many people in the industry, Dan's career in coffee didn’t start intentionally, but has led to a deeply satisfying enterprise. After deciding in 1994 that academics wasn’t the right road (getting a Masters Degree in 19th Century American Literature along the way), he ended up in Chicago, where a temp job with an inspiring restaurant entrepreneur started him on the road of coffee sales and marketing. PQC is the natural outcome of two decades contemplating the beautiful duality of coffee: simple and complex, practical and romantic, simply utilitarian and deeply meaningful. Dan started PQC with the vision to treat the industry like a text—collect it, read it, interpret it—and then apply that discipline to the practical needs of the dynamic system of transactions and competition that make up the coffee market.

Prior to launching PQC in 2014, Dan’s experience grew through a series local, regional and national sales positions with the global coffee company illy Caffe. Over his decades in the coffee industry, he has worked with thousands of clients, from small local restaurants and passionate cafes to global corporate entities.

Sean Birmingham, Chief Technology Officer

As CTO, Sean makes Premium Quality Consulting more than just a string of cases studies, more than just a massive list of data, or a long list of coffee sales scenarios. He turns the ideas of PQC into reality, balancing logical caution with strategic risk-taking. He has the patience to follow ideas to their executable conclusion but also the entrepreneurial leadership to go from “what if” to “what is.”

Prior to joining Premium Quality Consulting, Sean was a successful software developer who led and implemented enterprise-level, multi-user software initiatives for the Federal Reserve System. In this role, Sean was responsible for gathering and interpreting business requirements, leading software development, and ensuring on-time software releases. As a Senior Consultant for Clarity Consulting, Sean designed and developed software for Follett Higher Education’s bookstore management system. More recently, Sean has performed pro bono services for Taproot Foundation in the development and installation of database systems for several non-profit organizations. Additionally, Sean worked as technical adviser for Have Dreams, an autistic resource service organization, to manage and grow their IT department.