Uncle Nearest CEO Fawn Weaver talks 'Love and Whiskey' with industry leaders in Nashville

Fawn Weaver, the first-ever Black American to own an industry-leading whiskey brand, kicked off the 39th Annual Airport Business Diversity Conference in Nashville this week with lessons learned as a 25-year serial entrepreneur and CEO of billion-dollar company Uncle Nearest Whiskey.

Aviation professionals from across the country packed the Grand Hyatt Hotel ballroom in downtown Nashville for the exclusive "CEO Conversation" between Weaver and Eboni Wimbush, president and CEO of the Airport Minority Advisory Council, which works to advance women and minorities in the industry.

“I just do what’s good and what’s right," Weaver said. "Because all money isn’t good money. I think if you chase purpose. If you are literally living in your purpose, the money will chase you."

Despite attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs nationwide and a trend in businesses reversing the policies in Tennessee, Nashville International Airport hosted AMAC and 40 national airports during the five-day diversity conference for America's aviation industry.

Nashville Airport Authority President and CEO Doug Kreulen shared BNA's philosophy on diversity and inclusion policies.

“I believe it makes us more talented. It makes us more competitive, and we’re all competing for talent,” he told attendees. "Our airport is looking for efficiencies that we wouldn’t get if we were one blend of a family. Our program now, as we’re moving forward, is [about] talent and excellence. DEI brings those two to us, to make us more competitive.”

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Wimbush unpacked this year's conference theme, "Soaring to New Horizons," saying it is meant to embody the progress and collaboration of diverse perspectives to reach higher levels of success.

She connected the theme's significance to the recent 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"The stakes are very high. We have to continue to defend our progress," she said, leaving the audience with a call to action to continue to advocate for diversity and inclusion programs in their local communities.

The Airport Business Diversity Conference was founded by the Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC) to connect air travel professionals, government officials and business representatives for diversity and inclusion education, advocacy and collaboration.

Nashville Mayor: Diversity is key to Music City

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell spoke about the origin of Nashville’s "Music City" brand, crediting not country music or the flashy lights on Broadway, but Grammy winning historical Black colleges, the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Tennessee State University Aristocrat of Bands.

“So, music is our brand, but you see diversity is what helped build it. It’s a critical strength that helps make Nashville a more interesting place but has also fueled a lot of our growth,” O’Connell said. “We have become a global city, and you can see the global interest in Nashville, as well as the national interest, just from the successes of our airport.”

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Weaver's New York Times best-selling books "Happy Wives Club" and "Love and Whiskey" could not be more different in content but both demonstrate her unique worldview.

"There was a throughline about you. It was your determination to bring voice to the voiceless," Wimbush said. "That's the common between the two [books]."

At a time when marriage was depicted as filled with drama and adultery on popular show "Desperate Housewives and Bravo's "The Real Housewives" franchise, Weaver was inspired to travel to 12 countries on six continents, interviewing married couples of 25 years — like her own relationship — to deduce the common denominator.

After the release of "Happy Wives Club," Weaver was taken aback when a Los Angeles Times reporter called her rebellious for writing the book.

"The LA Times reporter said, 'You're rebellious because the entire world was describing marriage one way you decided to do it another way," Weaver recalls. "Well, if you think about the story in 'Love in Whiskey' that's actually what it is."

Giving it back to the Greens

Weaver's Uncle Nearest brand is named for Nearest Green, the enslaved man who was critical to developing the process of making smooth Tennessee whiskey, which Jack Daniel's commercialized.

The cover of "Love and Whiskey" is a photograph of Jack Daniel with George Green, son of Nearest Green, standing front and center — an image with a story inspired Weaver's top-selling whiskey brand. She first saw the photo in the New York Times International Edition article, “Jack Daniel’s embraces a secret ingredient: Help from a slave.” Because the origin of Jack Daniel's whiskey was unknown, people on social media looked at the photo and assumed that Jack Daniel enslaved the man and had stolen the recipe, she said.

However, when Weaver began diving into the story of Daniel, she discovered that not only did he not steal the recipe and try to hide Green’s story, but he also did not own slaves.

“He’s probably the first known business ally we’ve ever had,” she said. “The reason why [Jack Daniel] ceded the center position of the only photograph he ever took with his leadership team to a Black man was to make sure that we could not write him out of history.”

“Love and Whiskey” is the product of seven years of work from over 30 historians, archivists, archeologists and genealogists; thousands of documents and artifacts from six different states; and interviews from Jack Daniel’s and Nearest Green’s descendants, according to Weaver.

Through the process of the project, she proved what she believed to be one of the rare 19th century stories coming out of the south about love, honor and respect between a Black family and a white family.

The story of Jack Daniel and Nearest Green showcases the collaboration of two men with diverse viewpoints who crafted Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, a $6.5 billion corporation, and now inspired the $1.1 billion brand Uncle Nearest Whiskey.

Customers who purchased the limited-edition Uncle Nearest 777 Anniversary Blend received the chapter titled "Taking it to my grave," where they could learn Weaver's plan for succession. It was not something Weaver intended to share while she was alive.

Victoria Eady Butler, Nearest Greens great-great-great-granddaughter is the company's master blender, and who Weaver credits for Uncle Nearest being the most awarded bourbon in the world for the past five years.

"I've been very clear from day one. I was not building this company to profit from it," Weaver said. "I've known from day one that I was building this company to give it back to the Greens. So, when people ask me about the $1.1 billion, I'm not impressed by it because my goal is $40 [billion], and that's when I'm passing it over."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Fawn Weaver talks at Nashville airport with aviation industry leaders