Dia Simms has a thing about animals.

A 20-year veteran in the spirits industry, she is the CEO of Lobos 1707, a tequila company named after a wolf, a team player known for its cunning and intelligence. Investor LeBron James is a member of the pack, and Simms, the alpha wolf, is also a co-founder of Pronghorn, a new business determined to create more diversity in the $284 billion U.S. alcoholic beverage industry.

Simms and Pronghorn co-founders Erin Harris and Dan Sanborn, who first met years ago as colleagues at CÎROC vodka, named their business after the second fastest land mammal. Their goal: Create $2.4 billion in economic value for the Black community and the spirits industry by 2032. “The cheetah would win if it was a sprint,” Simms says. “But if you really want to go for the long haul in a race, the pronghorn will win every single time. We’re trying to catch up on centuries of inequity. We have a very long road [ahead], but we don’t have a lot of time.”

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In 2020, fellow liquor company executives called Simms during the racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd and asked how they could help diversify their own companies and the industry as a whole. Pronghorn emerged to galvanize the movement.

“We were like, ‘Don’t call me if you want to paint a mural,’” she says. “If you’re serious, I’m going to come with a serious plan.” First, Pronghorn mapped out the disparity: Black consumers account for almost 12% of the customer base but less than 8% of the workforce and 2% of the C-suite. Then they pitched their plan to invest in Black founders, executives, and entrepreneurs while creating a pipeline of talent to fill 1,800 jobs at all levels of the industry within a decade. Diageo is the anchor investor for Pronghorn.

No matter how good your ideas are or high quality your hooch is, you need connections to break into the liquor industry and navigate the whiplash regulatory rules that change from state to state and sometimes from one zip code to another. As for “liquidity events,” the kinds that brought celebrities like Ryan Reynolds (Aviation Gin) and George Clooney (Casamigos) windfalls in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the only record of a Black-owned brand selling for even $1 million, according to Pronghorn, is Bacardi’s recent stake in Jay-Z’s cognac company D’usse. To date, Pronghorn is incubating and working to accelerate the growth of 57 of the 250 Black-owned liquor brands. They’re betting on brands like Ten To One rum to break through.

“It’s not a game of musical chairs,” she says. “It’s a game of building a bigger table.”

In this long game, we’re betting on the pronghorn.

Meet the 2023 Food & Wine Game Changers

De La Calle Tepache | Dia Simms | Fry Away | Great Wrap | Heilala Vanilla | Induction Cooking | Joanne Lee Molinaro | Katie Jackson | Lisa Cheng Smith | Maui Nui Venison | Meherwan Irani | Reem Assil | Rockefeller Center | S.A.L.T. | Theaster Gates