Tremaine Atkinson is the co-founder, distiller, and managing director of operations at CH Distillery. After graduating from the University of California, San Diego with an economics degree in 1987, Atkinson moved to San Francisco and became a passionate home brewer. Never one to choose the easy way, he taught himself fermentation science, yeast propagation, and all-grain brewing. Although he loved beer, he dreamed of making vodka, his spirit of choice. Atkinson moved to Chicago in 1998, and after a 25-year career in asset management, decided to start a distillery with his old friend Mark Lucas in 2012. He completed a distillation course at the Siebel Institute and delved into modern fermentation techniques used by distillers. The precision and efficiency Atkinson honed in the finance world lent themselves well to understanding the chemistry and thermodynamics behind making alcohol. CH Distillery was launched in August 2013 with the goal of becoming Chicago’s premiere grain-to-bottle vodka distillery. Prior to founding CH Distillery, Tremaine was Partner, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer for LSV Asset Management, a Chicago-based institutional equity management firm with $80 billion in assets under management.