Yael Stormborn

Originally from Houston, Texas, Rum4Twenty4 Founder & Director Yael Stormborn has extensive knowledge of all aspects of the hospitality industry. Yael specializes in boutique cocktail bars, high volume establishments, fine dining, and live music venues, as well as private experiences, all on an international level.
In 2005, she moved to New York City to attend New York University. During this time, she worked alongside some of the world’s best bartenders, most notably as the youngest female bartender behind Audrey Saunders’s iconic Pegu Club. In 2012, Yael moved to Los Angeles after accepting a position with Proprietors, LLC, where she assisted with beverage development and operations management for the Los Angeles=-based hospitality company, while simultaneously running Hollywood’s Harvard & Stone.

Yael is the marriage of style and substance: a buttoned-up, sleeveless teen wolf jamming front flip dunks above the unsuspecting heads of her precious cocktail bar rivals. Beware her secret weapons: whimsy and humor; she is a fecund mother to nearly 5,000 blinking lights and googly eyes which are staples of her bar’s mise en place.

In addition to her work behind the bar, Yael also holds a number of titles. With Speed Rack, the national charity bar competition that honors female bartenders and helps to raise funds for breast cancer research, she was 2012 National Champion and 2013 Champion of West Coast Rematch. She was 2017 National Finalist with Diageo World Class and was twice recognized with Spirited Awards by Tales of the Cocktail—2018 American Bartender of the Year and 2020 Best American Hotel Bar.

Prior to founding Rum4Twenty4, an initiative to align art, hospitality, and experience for trade, brand owners, and consumers, Yael worked as the Lead Beverage Creative for SBE, focusing on eight properties nationally for the Katsuya and S Bar brands in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York. Yael is also the Director of Operations for a festival production collective called Stranger Than LLC.