Sam Lerman

Sam Lerman is a native of Washington, DC and grew up in Bethesda, MD. At 17 he enlisted in the armed forces, later serving in Hurricane Katrina and Rita and in Afghanistan where he was decorated for valor in combat.
After leaving the military, he was an executive in the US defense industry providing a wide variety of combat equipment to US forces. During the Afghanistan evacuation, he joined Evacuate Our Allies to help Afghans who served alongside US forces reach safety in the United States.

In 2022, he traveled to Ukraine during the early stages of the Russian invasion and leveraged his industry experience to advise the Ukrainian government on equipping their armed forces as they grew rapidly to defend the nation. While volunteering in Ukraine, he fell in love not only with the country, its people, history, and culture, but its wine and vodka. Over the next two years of working on the war effort in other capacities, he recognized the lack of availability of these amazing wines and spirits in the US and with other veteran partners founded Spyrt Worldwide to bring the best of Ukraine to the US while partnering with American veteran nonprofits to help protect and rebuild Ukraine.