Saratoga WarHorse Chairman Emeritus and Founding Board Member:
Brian Spearman
Brian Spearman was born in New Jersey, but grew up in the premier racing city, Saratoga Springs, NY. As a young man, Spearman would attend the Saratoga races by day, and visit his dad who worked as a Pinkerton security guard in the evenings during the annual historic meet. Subsequent seeds of his passion were planted when he worked at the Saratoga Race Course during the summers of his college years. Also during college, Spearman and his friends frequented Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont, in addition to Saratoga, to watch the classics in-person as often as they could.
After graduating from Fordham University in 1984, he set aside his passion for all things racing as he set out on his career with PepsiCo. There he would spend the next 32 years with assignments in General Management, National Sales and International. Towards the end of his career, Spearman was responsible for “the last mile” of the beverage supply chain which included the Company’s 400+ warehouses, fountain and vending, and the route delivery system in the US, Mexico and Canada. He retired from PepsiCo in 2015.
At the tail end of Spearman’s career at PepsiCo, he was reintroduced to Thoroughbred horse racing through racehorse ownership with Cot Campbell and Dogwood Stable. It was through the Dogwood/Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners (ETP) merger that Spearman and Aron Wellman struck up a friendship that led to his eventual involvement with ETP as a partner and Chairman of the company.
Spearman’s introduction to Saratoga WarHorse occurred in late 2015 when then Chairman of the Board, Paul Oreffice and Board member, Anne Campbell, asked him to join as a Board member. Right away, Spearman realized the overwhelming needs of our country’s Veterans and Service Members, as well as the profound impact of the Saratoga WarHorse program on their lives. In 2016, Spearman inherited the Board Chairmanship from Founding Board Member Paul Oreffice, which he occupied through the end of his term in 2021.
During Spearman’s tenure, the Saratoga Springs, NY and Aiken, SC locations flourished while also adding another location in Cockeysville, MD. One of Spearman’s early goals for Saratoga WarHorse was to ensure the charity remained financially sound to guarantee its commitment to serving as many Veterans as possible. During COVID, this goal would serve the charity well as it survived the worst of the pandemic and has emerged prepared for its next leg of growth. Spearman will continue to support and cheer on the Saratoga WarHorse team as they serve more Veterans in the years to come.
