Our Leadership Team
Get To know Us
Senior Officers
Meet the people in charge of running Prairie Dog Brewing’s daily corporate affairs and operations.
Co-Founder Gerad Coles
Gerad was born and raised in Calgary. Before founding Prairie Dog Brewing, Gerad had a 14-year career managing operations for tech companies and working in data analytics, as well as having countless interests and hobbies, and side hustles. For a time, Gerad lived in Silicon Valley, California with his wife Laura, where he got into brewing beer at home, teaching himself and eventually another of our co-founders, Tyler Potter, how to brew beer on the weekends. It was this bond over beer that eventually led to the founding of Prairie Dog Brewing.
Today, Gerad’s work is focused on ensuring that our company is continuously in a state of improvement and growth. Reporting to our Board of Directors, Gerad acts as General Manager for both our restaurant and brewery operations, and works with other members of our leadership team to solve problems, set strategy and establish and measure progress to goals, while also heading up our admin teams (Finance, Facilities, and HR). Gerad is also a passionate musician and personally heads our live music program, while also being our resident food photographer!
Co-Founder Laura Coles
Laura was raised on Vancouver Island, eventually making the leap to the mainland to work at a Calgary tech startup where she met her husband and Prairie Dog Brewing co-founder, Gerad. A busy mother of a pre-teen girl, Laura has a creative mind and loves free-form art like sculpting, traveling and being outdoors, but she is also a business powerhouse at Prairie Dog Brewing.
After helping found the company in 2016 and establishing Prairie Dog Brewing’s brand and physical space, Laura took on our Events program, which she still leads today. Laura oversees all aspects of our marketing online, in print, and in radio advertising, and she organizes our involvement in festivals and community events. Laura curates all things customer facing, and is the first point of contact for most of our online inquiries, such as requests for charity donations and media attention. Whenever time permits, Laura tries to read and respond to nearly all of our Google reviews, social media messages and website-based emails. Finally, Laura acts as Assistant General Manager to our restaurant and meets many times a day with restaurant management and team members.
Board Of Directors
While we are a small, Calgary-based business, Prairie Dog Brewing is also federally-incorporated. It took a lot of capital to get Prairie Dog Brewing’s 58th Avenue Brewpub and Brewery constructed and fully operational in 2018, then even more to make it through the tough covid years and to expand into the wholesale beer business afterwards, so we’ve taken on just short of 50 shareholders over the years. That’s a lot of people depending on us to put their investment to good use, which is why we have a Board of Directors that oversees company performance and holds our senior officers accountable.
Prairie Dog Brewing was founded by 5 people initially, and they all sit on our Board of Directors today, as well as a close business advisor. Learn more about them below.
Co-Founder Tyler Potter
Tyler Potter co-founded Prairie Dog Brewing alongside his friends and family members in 2016, and after working tirelessly to help get our doors open in 2018, Tyler took on oversight of Brewery Operations, where he worked on site until late 2023, before exiting operations to focus more on family and other career initiatives. Tyler is a multi-talented, brilliant man, and he continues to be involved in Prairie Dog Brewing projects from time to time, while sitting on our Board of Directors and governing the direction of the company.
Co-Founder Jason Potter
Jason (Jay) Potter is another Prairie Dog Brewing co-founder who helped design and build the business from the ground up, singlehandedly establishing our barbecue menu while working as our Executive Chef for our first 4 years’ operations. After passing on the torch to other chefs, Jay became involved in our brewery sales program, but ultimately moved on from daily operations to explore other opportunities. Jay still sits on our Board of Directors, where he helps govern the direction of the company.
Co-Founder Sarah Goertzen
Sarah co-founded Prairie Dog Brewing alongside her husband Tyler and our other co-founders back in 2016, and after working daily on site to get our doors open in 2018, Sarah used her skills as an Analytical Chemist (pharma/cannabis) to establish our quality management programs, business wide, including things like documentation standards, checklists, standard operating procedures, and much more. Sarah also worked as our brewery QA Analyst for a time before moving on from operations to work directly in her industry. Sarah continues to sit on our Board of Directors, today, where she guides the direction of the company and helps hold our teams accountable to our quality mission.
C.A. Clayton Achen
Clayton Achen is a childhood friend of co-founder Gerad Coles and was with Prairie Dog Brewing from the start, whether putting in physical labour to help demolish our 58th Avenue Brewpub space in 2017 or providing financial accounting services or advice. Clayton is also senior managing partner at Achen Henderson CPAs, where he acts as a Canadian tax expert with a background in tax compliance, planning, and strategy. Clayton’s experience with a wide variety of clients ranging from owner-managed small businesses to publicly traded oil and gas companies has helped Prairie Dog in many ways over the years, both in his role on our Board of Directors and as a general advisor. Clayton has also served on several other Boards of Directors including Music Seeds International, and currently sits on the board of the Elder Statesmen Group.
Co-Founder Gerad Coles
That’s right! In addition to acting as a Senior Officer in the company’s daily operations (above), Gerad also sits on our Board of Directors alongside his co-founders and Clayton Achen, where he provides most of the financial updates and his operational perspective to the board.
Co-Founder Laura Coles
Like the rest of our co-founders, Laura sits on Prairie Dog Brewing’s Board of Directors in addition to her operational role above, and works with our Board to guide the company to profitability while working to support our mission of community engagement and, especially, inclusivity.