Sandy Beall is a Managing Partner of Third Leaf Hospitality and leads Third Leaf’s hospitality practice. He began his career in 1971 by founding Ruby Tuesday while still in college, quickly growing the concept to 15 units and ultimately selling it to Morrison Inc. in 1982. He remained its President and CEO and became Chairman and CEO of Morrison Inc. in 1995, overseeing an operation that ultimately grew to 800+ global locations. Sandy co-founded Blackberry Farm in 1975 and serves as Chairman, steadily growing it with his family over the following five decades into one of the premier luxury resorts in the world.
A member of Relais & Chateauxsince 1994, Blackberry Farm has received countless accolades from the industry. He and his family debuted the adjacent Blackberry Mountain in 2019, which sits atop some 5,200 acres near Blackberry Farm, and opened High Hampton in Cashiers, North Carolina in 2021. He serves as Managing Partner of the Windham Mountain Club, the premier ski resort in the greater New York metro area, and was previously an investor and partner in the Snake River Sporting Club in Jackson, Wyoming. He served as the CEO of a public company for over 25 years, and has overseen dozens of highly successful concepts. Sandy was previously a partner in Arlington Capital Advisors, an M&A advisory firm specializing in consumer brands. He is a major investor and board member of a number of restaurant and consumer brands, including &pizza, The Meatball Shop, Mexicue, Beyond Sushi and Custom Foods of America. He previously served on the boards of First American Bank, Pilot Flying J (acquired by Berkshire Hathaway), Windstream Corporation, and SSC Service Solutions.
Aaron Faust is a Founding and Managing Partner of Third Leaf Partners. He serves on the board of Blackberry Farm LLC, which owns and operates Blackberry Farm, Blackberry Mountain, and High Hampton, and as a Managing Partner of the Windham Mountain Club, the premier ski resort in the greater New York metro area. He also serves on the boards of WineBid, the largest online wine auction site, Last Bottle, the largest online flash sale site for wine in the US, and is a founder and director of Protea Financial, which provides accounting and bookkeeping services to small- and medium-sized businesses.
He previously served on the board of Twin Farms, a 20 room Relais & Chateaux property in Vermont. Prior to founding Third Leaf, he was a founding partner of a firm that owned, operated and managed high-end resort and winery assets globally and served as a Managing Partner through 2011. There, he served on the board of the California Lodging Industry Association, as well as the boards of past investments, including Meadowood Napa Valley and the Napa Valley Reserve. Aaron worked previously as a corporate attorney.
Aaron received his undergraduate degree in Political Science with Distinction in General Scholarship from the University of California at Berkeley and is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the State Bar of California.
Alex Pagon is a Founding and Managing Partner of Third Leaf Partners. He leads Third Leaf’s beverage practice, and serves on the boards of WineBid, the world’s largest online wine auctioneer; Last Bottle, one of the largest online wine retailers in the US; Antica Terra, one of Oregon’s top wineries; and Mulderbosch, one of South Africa’s largest premium wineries. He also serves as the CEO of Digital Beverage Group, the parent company of Last Bottle and WineBid, which is the fourth largest online seller of wine in the United States. He has served as a strategic advisor to wineries in California, Oregon, Washington, Spain, and South Africa.
Prior to founding Third Leaf, he led the effort to build a vertically integrated portfolio of international wine businesses, as the Chief Operating Officer at a firm that owned, operated, and managed select winery and resort assets globally. Previously, Alex served as an intelligence officer in the United States Army, in which he commanded a company of 121 Soldiers and served as aide to the commanding general of Special Operations Command Korea. He received his under graduate degree with Distinction and Honors in Economics (with minors in Mathematics, Spanish and Portuguese) from Stanford University.