Meredith Grelli

Meredith is the Director of Project Olympus, a part of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. She is the Assistant Dean of Entrepreneurship Initiatives at Carnegie Mellon University and an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business. She is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Carnegie Mellon University's Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. She was awarded the 2023 Gerald Leland Bach Teaching Award, voted by MBA students. She founded and leads the Family Business Initiative at Carnegie Mellon, which brings together family business owners and entrepreneurs from various industries and geographies.

Meredith Meyer Grelli founded, led, and sold two craft beverage companies, Wigle Whiskey and Threadbare Cider & Mead. Wigle Whiskey was Pennsylvania’s first direct-to-consumer spirits company since Prohibition. She is a two-time James Beard Semi-Finalist for Outstanding Wine, Spirits, Beer Professional and was named 100 Women to Watch in the US by the Business Times. Meredith’s work helped to restore Pennsylvania’s legacy as the Birthplace of American Whiskey, as well as change the regulatory framework in which distilleries operate.

She has also founded, led and transitioned three non-profit organizations. In addition to her innovation and entrepreneurship, Meredith is an author, real estate developer, and seed investor with an unsinkable interest in community and economic development. She received her BS from the University of Chicago, studied cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, and earned her MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.