Brent Hocking is an American entrepreneur. He is the founder of DeLeón Tequila, which he launched in 2009, and

Virginia Black Whiskey Virginia Black is a brand of American Bourbon whiskey. History Virginia Black is a collaboration between Brent Hocking and Drake. It is distributed in the United States by Proximo Spirits and is available in Canada, the U.K., Ghana, Kenya, ...

, which he co-founded with

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

in 2016. Hocking grew up in

Compton, California Compton is a city located in the Gateway Cities region of southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county, and on May 11, 1888, was the eighth ci ...

and has lived in Southern California for most of his life. Hocking left his job in mortgage lending in 2006 to start his own brand of tequila, which later became known as DeLeón Tequila. Hocking bought a distillery in

Jalisco Jalisco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in western Mexico and is bordered by s ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and launched the brand in 2009. Hocking sold the brand to

Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...

and

Sean Combs Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Diddy, and formerly Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon, New York, Mount Ve ...

in 2014 for an undisclosed amount. Hocking is the co-founder of Virginia Black Whiskey, a venture he launched with Drake in 2016.

References

Businesspeople from California Food and drink company founders Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Compton, California {{US-business-bio-stub