Stephanie is a Whisky Specialist at Diageo, where she oversees innovation across a portfolio of single malt and blended Scotch whiskies. Her work focuses on developing new liquid concepts from ideation through to commercialisation, helping shape the innovation pipeline for whisky-based spirit drinks and Scotch-based RTDs.

Stephanie holds an MSci in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Glasgow. She began her journey with Diageo during a student placement with the company’s Whisky Specialist Team before working as a Virus Research Scientist at the University of Glasgow, later returning to Diageo to lead whisky innovation and quality initiatives.

Her contributions include the development of liquids for notable releases such as Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra, created for the world’s lightest Scotch whisky bottle, and Mortlach 50 Year Old, the oldest and rarest Mortlach expression launched to date. She has also been involved in several distillery-exclusive bottlings including Clynelish, Dalwhinnie, and Talisker, as well as spirit drink innovations like Buchanan’s Pineapple and Old Parr Tropical.

In addition to innovation, Stephanie is responsible for maintaining quality across key single malt expressions including Talisker 10, 18 and 25 Year Old, as well as Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old and Winter’s Gold. Her work also includes developing Scotch bases for RTD pipelines and leading technical projects focused on maturation and cask quality using both sensory and analytical techniques.

An IFST-qualified sensory specialist, Stephanie brings deep expertise in structured flavour evaluation across multiple spirits categories and leads whisky training and sensory accreditation for Diageo’s Amsterdam panel as part of the company’s standard reference platform.