Meet the mentee: Hazel Macleod, Woven Whisky
From her beginnings as a tour guide to working in commercial, Hazel Macleod’s career in whisky wasn’t a planned one. Now a whisky specialist for blended Scotch brand Woven, she’s using the skills she learned on the Atonia Programme to overcome self doubt, spread positivity and eradicate the need for the term ‘women in whisky’.
OWF: Hi Hazel! Tell us a bit about yourself.
Hazel Macleod: I'm originally from the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Growing up in a small community, I was surprisingly quite shy. I’m from a small village which mainly consists of my family and I’m an only child, so my free time was often spent making up games for myself, reading all of Jacqueline Wilson's books and of course, Highland Dancing.
Moving to the ‘mainland’ for university gave me the opportunity to come out of my shell a bit more and really become my own person. I’ve definitely become a lot less concerned about what people think of me, and I love experiencing things outwith my comfort zone.
OWF: What has been your proudest achievement during the Atonia Programme?
HM: My new job! I started with the team at Woven Whisky as a whisky specialist back in September 2024, not long after our first session. I can honestly say I would’ve buckled and pulled out of the application process had it not been for my mentor Stef Holt keeping me grounded, and the other people in the group who helped with advice.
I finally feel like I have clarity on where I want my career to progress to and where I see myself in whisky in the future. It’s also interesting as I totally changed my career path from when I initially applied for the OurWhisky Foundation! I was desperate to become a brand ambassador as I assumed that that’s what I would be good at.
“I finally feel like I have clarity on where I want my career to progress to and where I see myself in whisky in the future.”
I gained valuable insight into all the different roles in the commercial space, and have decided that this is very much a job for me and I want to continue progressing in this space. All those preconceptions I had are well and truly blown out the water, and I am really enjoying my time with the team at Woven and expanding my knowledge and skills in the commercial world.
OWF: What does your role entail?
HM: I look after independent off-trade (shops such as Royal Mile Whiskies and Woodwinters), basically any shop willing to sell our product, and I work with them to help increase the rate of sale through promotions, barrel top tastings etc.
The cool thing about a company like Woven is that we can be super adaptable to change, and my job role has changed slightly since starting. Although off-trade is my focus, I also help our brand ambassador Lara with any on-trade activations (more so if they have a commercial aspect such as whisky shows where we’re selling bottles). I also help with the management of our distribution partner, Base Spirits, who do on-trade distribution for us.
The Woven team: (l-r) Isabelle Connor, Nick Ravenhall and Hazel Macleod
OWF: What were your thoughts on your future career when you were growing up?
HM: Growing up, I had some pretty big and bold ideas of what I wanted to be when I was older. At first, I wanted to be a basketball player (rogue, considering I’m not vertically blessed and I hate running). I also dabbled with the idea of becoming a teacher, but ultimately I fell in love with all things hospitality and wanted to do something in that field, but wasn’t sure what.
I decided to do my degree in Hospitality Management in Aberdeen with the hope it would give me a clear view of the career path I wanted to pursue, but alas it left me with more questions. Regardless, I always knew I wanted to work with people.
OWF: When did your love of whisky begin and why?
HM: My whisky story doesn’t begin with that one delicious dram over a majestic Scottish setting that hooked me. After my studies, I got a graduate job in insurance sales. I was cold calling from 11am-7pm and I was miserable.
One of the girls on the desk with me suggested I reach out to her partner as he was a tour guide at Deanston distillery and they were looking for summer guides. I’ll admit that I went into that job with the mindset that, ‘this is just a stop gap. I’m here to pay my bills and go home and look for other jobs’.
That attitude quickly disappeared when I saw the waves of visitors we would get every single day from all over the world. I was immediately intrigued as to why people were so desperate to travel around Scotland and see all these distilleries.
That’s where my love for it started. The storytelling, the conversations, the relationships: it was a brand new world that I was discovering and I was hooked.
‘I didn’t get my job for being a woman’: Macleod on hoping the future of whisky doesn’t focus on gender.
OWF: Why did you apply for the OurWhisky Foundation Atonia Programme?
HM: I’ve now been in this industry for seven years, starting as a tour guide and working my way through to commercial. I saw the OurWhisky Foundation mentorship programme and saw it as an amazing opportunity to grow in self confidence, as well as growing my network in the industry.
I was guilty of assuming the whisky industry was a basic flow chart which you can work as a distiller, a marketeer, a salesperson and that was it. Seeing the different roles the founders themselves had within the industry sparked my interest and made me realise that there’s so many different paths to discover in the industry.
OWF: What were the biggest challenges for you in progressing?
HM: When it comes to progressing in my roles, I feel like I’ve been overshadowed by my self doubt and imposter syndrome. I’ve lost count of how many times I’d think, ‘yeah, I can do that, but someone else can do it better.’ I’d also sit in situations where someone would ask a question, I knew the answer, but I’d keep quiet and think, ‘actually, do I really? I’ll probably just sound stupid if I say it.’
OWF: How did you work with your mentor to overcome these?
HM: I was extremely fortunate to be matched with Stef Holt (curator of world whisky at Mangrove). She helped me overcome any form of self doubt and gave me the right tools that I could use in real-time situations where I felt like self doubt was creeping in and stopping me from completing projects. Even when I was interviewing for my current role, I remember word-vomiting all my concerns to Stef and she was such a calming voice of reason.
“The Power Room sessions were the best workshops I’ve done in any work setting. We discussed such serious topics, as well as building ourselves up and celebrating every victory, no matter how big or small.”
OWF: What was your favourite part of the entire mentorship programme?
HM: The Power Room sessions were the best workshops I’ve done in any work setting. Lucy (Cox, co-founder of The Academe) is absolutely amazing at addressing ways in which we self-sabotage and how we can overcome them, as well as other issues such as imposter syndrome and confidence in general.
We discussed such serious topics, as well as building ourselves up and celebrating every victory, no matter how big or small. To this day, I still go back and reflect on the scores I got in the ‘confidence wheel’, and the worksheets we did during these sessions. They’re good to look back on when I’m having those, ‘oh my god, what am I doing?!’ moments.
OWF: How has this programme empowered you to empower others?
HM: It’s changed my way of thinking from negative, to way more positive, and I’m enjoying sharing that with others. I was out with friends recently and while describing how challenging I was finding something, I said, ‘I mean, at the end of the day it’s not that I’m clueless, it’s more like I have an opportunity to learn about a whole new subject!’
I feel like if you surround yourself with like-minded peers, you’re automatically going to slot into their way of thinking. I want to have the effect that Stef had on me, on other people.
Macleod says the Atonia Programme has helped reshape her mindset into a more positive outlook
OWF: What advice would you give someone applying for or starting the programme?
HM: Don’t put it off! Make sure you take the time to actually focus on the application and do the pre-work. At the end of the day, this is for you and, not to be cliche, but you get out of it exactly what you put into it.
Be upfront and honest about what you are looking to get out of this programme, and the tools that you think will help. Don’t hold back!
OWF: What are your hopes for the future for women working in whisky?
HM: Although there’s been great developments for women working in whisky, we can all agree that there’s still loads that needs to be done. Short-term, we need to keep building up one another's profiles as well as our own. I saw a quote that said, ‘Be a woman that speaks other women’s names in a room full of opportunities,’ and I absolutely love that.
In the future, it would be great for ‘women in whisky’ to no longer be a topic that needs to be highlighted. We’re not just stock images that are used for International Women’s Day, we’re not just a stamp on inclusion bingo, we are growing in this industry and we’re really good at what we do.
I didn’t get my job for being a woman, I got the job because I was the best candidate with the right skill set. It just so happens I’m a woman as well.
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