Steric names Steve Sukman COO to drive international growth

By AI, Created 1:01 PM UTC, June 02, 2026, /AGP/ – Steric has appointed Steve Sukman as chief operating officer as the Los Angeles-based beverage technology company pushes into international markets. The move brings in an executive with experience scaling emerging technologies and regulated businesses across wine, spirits, juice and ready-to-drink categories.

Why it matters: - Steric is widening its reach beyond U.S. beverage producers and into international wine, spirits, juice and RTD markets. - The COO hire is meant to help the company scale a technology platform aimed at improving product quality and recovering value from inconsistent batches. - The appointment adds operational leadership as Steric tries to commercialize post-production beverage processing across more categories.

What happened: - Steric named Steve Sukman chief operating officer on June 3, 2026. - Steric is a Los Angeles-based technology firm that provides flavor-tuning systems to commercial beverage producers. - William Fay, Steric’s CEO, said Sukman has experience taking technically sophisticated products to commercial scale. - Fay said Sukman’s background in emerging technology and regulated industries fits Steric’s push to move faster and execute with precision.

The details: - Sukman has worked on commercialization in virtual reality, data visualization and regulated cannabis. - Sukman has held COO roles at public and private companies. - Those roles included global revenue expansion, restructurings, scaling international operations and bringing enterprise technologies to market. - Steric says its systems improve flavor, consistency and product value without additives, filtration or changes to core formulations. - The company says its technology can help producers recover value from off-spec or inconsistent batches and run operations more efficiently. - Steric points to recent commercial results that included mitigation of geosmin contamination in distilling. - Steric also says its technology improved finished wine profiles and produced up to a fourfold increase in retail value for select production batches. - The company is expanding its commercial footprint across spirits, wine and other beverage categories. - Steric works with commercial beverage producers across wine, spirits, RTD, juice and emerging beverage sectors.

Between the lines: - The hire suggests Steric is shifting from product development toward broader commercialization and international execution. - Sukman’s background in regulated and technically complex markets signals Steric wants an operator who can navigate both sales growth and operational scale. - The emphasis on measurable outcomes such as product recovery and higher retail value indicates Steric is selling efficiency and margin improvement, not just process innovation.

What’s next: - Steric is expected to use Sukman’s experience to accelerate expansion across international beverage markets. - The company will likely continue building commercial relationships in spirits, wine and adjacent beverage categories. - Steric’s next phase centers on translating recent technical wins into repeatable sales and deployment at larger scale.

The bottom line: - Steric is betting that operational depth and regulated-industry experience will help turn niche beverage-processing technology into a broader international business.