Peter Hanson Coors (born September 20, 1946) is an American businessman and politician. He formerly served as the chairman of the
Molson Coors Brewing Company
The Molson Coors Beverage Company is an American-Canadian multinational drink and brewing company incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in Golden, Colorado and Montreal, Quebec.
Molson Coors was formed in 2005 t ...
and chairman of
MillerCoors
MillerCoors was a beer brewing company in the United States. MillerCoors was formed in 2008 as a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors to combine their brewing, marketing and sales operations in the United States. The company was acqui ...
.
Coors was the
Republican party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
nominee in the
2004 United States Senate election in Colorado
The 2004 United States Senate election in Colorado took place on November 2, 2004 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local ...
.
Early life
Coors was born in
Golden, Colorado
Golden is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 20,399 at the 2020 United States Censu ...
. He is the great-grandson of
Adolph Coors
Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Sr. (February 4, 1847 – June 5, 1929) was a German American brewer who founded the Adolph Coors Company in Golden, Colorado, in 1873.
Early years
Adolph Hermann Joseph Kuhrs was born in Barmen in Rhenish Pruss ...
, the
brewing
Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and #Fermenting, fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with Yeast#Beer, yeast. It may be done in a brewery ...
entrepreneur, and the son of
Holly Coors
Holland "Holly" Coors (August 25, 1920 – January 18, 2009) was an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political activist and philanthropist who had been married to Joseph Coors, the president of Coors Brewing Company.
Co ...
(born Edith Holland Hanson) and
Joseph Coors
Joseph Coors, Sr. (November 12, 1917 – March 15, 2003), was the grandson of brewer Adolph Coors and president of Coors Brewing Company.
Birth and education
Coors was born in 1917 to Alice May Kistler (1885–1970) and Adolph Coors II. His sibl ...
. He graduated from
Phillips Exeter Academy
(not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God)
, location = 20 Main Street
, city = Exeter, New Hampshire
, zipcode ...
and then from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
from which he received a degree in
engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
. A member of the
Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon (), commonly known as Psi U, is a North American fraternity,''Psi Upsilon Tablet'' founded at Union College on November 24, 1833. The fraternity reports 50 chapters at colleges and universities throughout North America, some of which ...
fraternity, Coors was elected to the
Sphinx Head Society
The Sphinx Head Society is the oldest senior honor society at Cornell University. Sphinx Head recognizes Cornell senior men and women who have demonstrated respectable strength of character on top of a dedication to leadership and service at Corn ...
during his final year at Cornell. He also received his
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
in 1970.
Career
Coors has worked all of his life in various positions at his family's firm, the
Coors Brewing Company
The Coors Brewing Company started as an American brewery and beer company in Golden, Colorado. In 2005, Adolph Coors Company, the holding company that owned Coors Brewing, merged with Molson, Inc. to become Molson Coors.
The first Coors brew ...
.
In 1993, Coors became vice chairman and
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of the company, and in 2002, he was named chairman of Coors Brewing Company and
Adolph Coors Company
The Adolph Coors Company was formerly a holding company in Golden, Colorado controlled by the heirs of founder Adolph Coors. Its principal subsidiary was the Coors Brewing Company. The brewery was founded in 1873.
In 2005, Adolph Coors Co. merge ...
. In 2004, according to the ''
Rocky Mountain News
The ''Rocky Mountain News'' (nicknamed the ''Rocky'') was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As ...
'', Coors "made $332,402 in salary and a $296,917 bonus as chairman of Adolph Coors. He also received 125,000 stock options with a potential value of $13 million".
He stepped down temporarily from these positions in 2004 to run for the US Senate. After the 2005 merger with
Molson
The Molson Brewery is a Canadian based brewery company based in Montreal which was established in 1786 by the Molson family. In 2005, Molson merged with the Adolph Coors Company to become Molson Coors.
Molson Coors maintains some of its Can ...
, Coors became a Class A Director in the newly formed Molson Coors Brewing Company.
On May 7, 2018, Coors wrote an open letter criticizing the hostility toward “Big Beer,” i.e., large brewing companies, at a Craft Brewers Conference sponsored by the Brewers Association. “The leadership of the Brewers Association does a great disservice to the entire beer value chain by attempting to pit one part of the industry against another,” he charged.
In a May 14, 2018 opinion piece for the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', Coors urged
President Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
, whom he respects, to put an end to the Midwest Premium, a “mysterious fee” added to aluminum orders in the U.S. “It is time to fix this mess and end the premium once and for all,” he wrote. “A private solution would be best — one crafted by producers, buyers, market makers and customers like Molson Coors. Let us forge a new deal on aluminum, to the benefit of a hundred million fans of the most American of beverages. President Trump, are you with us?”
At the end of 2019, Coors retired from his role as the company's chief customer relations officer. He remains a company ambassador.
Board memberships and other professional activities
In October 2006, he was appointed by the
University of Colorado Hospital
UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital or University Hospital (formerly named Colorado General Hospital) is part of UCHealth (University of Colorado Health) and is a Level I trauma center and the principal teaching hospital for the University ...
board of directors as chairman of the board for the new University of Colorado Hospital Foundation.
He has served on the boards of
U.S. Bancorp
U.S. Bancorp (stylized as us bancorp) is an American bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and incorporated in Delaware. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association, and is the fifth largest banking institution i ...
,
H. J. Heinz Company
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six contine ...
,
HOBY
Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) is an organization dedicated "to inspiring and developing our global community of youth and volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service, and innovation."
History
Founded in 1958 by American actor Hu ...
(Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership) Colorado, and Energy Corp. of America. He is also involved in civic organizations such as the Denver Area Council of the
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...
and the
National Western Stock Show
The National Western Stock Show is an annual livestock show and festival held every January at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado since 1906.
The show’s original purpose was advertised as showings to demonstrate better breeding a ...
Association. He is also part of the
ownership group of the
Colorado Rockies
The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...
. He is a member of the
Augusta National Golf Club
Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does no ...
in
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...
. In 1997, Coors was granted an honorary doctorate from
Johnson & Wales University
Johnson & Wales University (JWU) is a private university with its main campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded as a business school in 1914 by Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales, JWU enrolled 7,357 students across its campuses in the fa ...
, where he is a trustee. He sits on the board of trustees of the
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. ...
.
Politics
When U.S. Senator
Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Ben Nighthorse Campbell (born April 13, 1933) is an American Cheyenne politician who represented Colorado's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1993, and as a United States Senator from Colorado f ...
declared in 2004 that he was retiring, Coors announced his candidacy. His opponent in the Republican
primary election
Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
was another
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
, former congressman
Bob Schaffer
Robert Warren Schaffer (born July 24, 1962) is a Republican Party (United States), Republican former member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Colorado in the 105th United States Congress, 105th Congress and the two ...
. During their primary, the two candidates engaged in an ideological disagreement, with Schaffer attacking Coors because his company had provided benefits to the partners of its
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
and
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
employees, in addition to promoting its beer in
gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities.
Gay bars once served as ...
s. Coors defended himself by saying that he was opposed to
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
, and supported a
constitutional amendment
A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...
to ban it, although he noted that he supported
civil union
A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...
s for gay couples. According to the ''Rocky Mountain News'', Coors described his company's pro-
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
practices as "good business, separate from politics."
He defeated Schaffer with 61% of the vote in the primary, with many analysts citing his high name recognition in the state as a primary factor.
Coors faced
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
and
Colorado Attorney General
The Attorney General of the State of Colorado is the chief legal officer for the U.S. state of Colorado and the head of the Colorado Department of Law, a principal department of the Colorado state government. It is an elected position with a four- ...
Ken Salazar
Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Mexico. He previously served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Ba ...
in the
November 2004 election, and was defeated by a margin of 51% to 47%.
According to the non-partisan
OpenSecrets
OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP). ...
, Coors gave his own campaign $1,213,657 and received individual donations of $60,550 from other Coors family members. He was mentioned as a possible contender in the 2008 Senate election.
Election results
Coors has been described as “a major donor in Colorado politics.” In 2016, Coors donated $5,000 to
Leadership Matters for America, a super PAC supporting the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, and $5,000 to
Right to Rise
Right to Rise is a political action committee (PAC) created to support Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential election. A Super PAC, Right to Rise is permitted to raise and spend unlimited amounts of corporate, union, and individual campaign contr ...
, which supported
Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Bush, who grew up in Houston, was the second son of former President George H. W. Bush a ...
.
Personal life
Coors is married to Marilyn Coors (born Grosso) and has six children.
On May 28, 2006, Coors was arrested by the
Colorado State Patrol
The Colorado State Patrol (CSP) (originally known as the Colorado State Highway Courtesy Patrol), based in Lakewood, Colorado, is a division of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, and is one of the official state patrol agencies of Colorad ...
on suspicion of
driving under the influence
Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...
and registering a
blood alcohol level
Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level, is a measurement of alcohol intoxication used for legal or medical purposes; it is expressed as mass of alcohol per volume or mass of blood. For example ...
higher than the
legal limit (0.088).
Coors commented on the incident, saying, "I should have planned ahead for a ride. For years, I've advocated the responsible use of our company's products. That's still my message, and our company's message. I am sorry that I didn't follow it myself."
On August 25, 2006, Coors pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of driving while impaired. A judge sentenced Coors to 24 hours of
community service
Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performed ...
and a suspended fine and ordered him to undergo alcohol education courses.
See also
*
Wise Use Movement
The wise use movement in the United States is a loose-knit coalition of groups promoting the expansion of private property rights and reduction of government regulation of public property, publicly held property. This includes advocacy of expand ...
*
List of richest American politicians
This list of richest American politicians includes current and former office-holders and political appointees, and is not necessarily adjusted for inflation. Estimated wealth is at least $100 million in 2012 dollars, for all the people listed here. ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coors, Pete
1946 births
Living people
People from Golden, Colorado
Coors family
Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
Cornell University College of Engineering alumni
University of Denver alumni
Colorado Rockies owners
American Enterprise Institute
Colorado Republicans
Conservatism in the United States
Psi Upsilon