Chris Graham Prepares to Lead NABCA as the Next Chairman

As Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Revenue, Chris Graham oversees a broad portfolio that includes the Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control, placing him at the center of the state’s beverage alcohol landscape.

From managing a control-state spirits distribution system to balancing regulatory oversight with supplier and retailer needs, Graham’s role carries significant influence across the industry. As consumer preferences evolve and operational demands grow, his leadership shapes how products enter the market, how retailers access inventory and how suppliers engage with one of the South’s key control jurisdictions.

All this comes in handy as he prepares to step into the role of chairman of the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA).

A Diverse Background

Graham brings a deep professional background to his role leading the Mississippi Department of Revenue. After graduating from college, Graham began his career in banking before deciding to pursue law school. He entered legal practice in the early 2000s and spent several years working as an attorney.

Around 2008, Graham transitioned into public service, joining a small state agency as assistant director and counsel. After a brief return to private practice, where he handled administrative cases involving state agencies — including the former Mississippi State Tax Commission — he gained experience representing clients navigating regulatory and tax matters.

Graham later moved to the legislative branch, working with leadership in the Mississippi State Senate and serving alongside the state’s lieutenant governor at the time. That role provided direct exposure to policymaking and executive leadership. In 2020, following the retirement of the previous commissioner, Graham was appointed by the governor to serve the remainder of the term as commissioner of the Department of Revenue.

After completing those two years, he was appointed to a full six-year term, and has continued serving in the role since, overseeing tax administration and the state’s Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control operations.

Goals as Commissioner, Chairman

As he took over as commissioner, Graham had to balance numerous goals across the array of departments and responsibilities that he now oversaw.

“We do a lot of different things here at the Department of Revenue,” he says. “We collect about $11 billion a year; we’re the primary revenue collection agency for the entire state. So it’s hard to take everything we do and say, ‘Okay, here were my goals’. But as it relates to alcoholic beverage control, I knew coming in, that we needed to modernize our systems.”

In his prior work at the legislature, Graham had been in meetings where previous commissioners had talked about the aging systems and the urgent need to update them. “And so as far as the alcoholic beverage control warehouse goes,” he says, “my goals were very simple and very straightforward from day one.”

Graham’s objective of modernization was made all the more important by the timing of becoming commissioner. He took the role in 2020.

“I came in there in the middle of the pandemic, at the height of all of the increased demand for alcohol,” he recalls. “So we really got to see how outdated our systems were because of that increased demand overnight. And so my goals, as far as that goes, were very easy. From day one, 2020, we started working on modernizing our operation. And it took us several years to bring everybody along. And finally, the legislature took their final step in 2024, meeting our funding request so that we can construct a warehouse.”

Mississippi is building a brand new beverage alcohol warehouse.

Elsewhere in the department, Graham has overseen the modernization of other important systems. For instance, Mississippi issues about a million car titles every year. Each required multiple layers of paperwork, quite the arduous, outdated task.

“We have, over the last couple of years, worked on putting into place an electronic system for that,” Graham says. “We haven’t finished it yet. We’re kind of midstream. We have created a system where you can do part of the process electronically, which has reduced the amount of paper.”

As for taking the helm at NABCA, Graham points out that the association has been around for nearly 90 years.

“What I would really like to see at NABCA is to make sure that we position ourselves to be that resource that they’ve been for Mississippi and other control states for the last 88, 89 years,” he says. “My goal is to make sure that we continue on with our strong leadership team that we have in place.”

Graham was not yet ready to announce his NABCA Chairman theme, but offers an insightful hint.

“As I mentioned, NABCA is going to be celebrating its 90th year in existence this coming year,” he says. “So this year we’re going to go more toward an organizational theme.”

Learning from NABCA

As for his many years as a NABCA member, the commissioner appreciates the sharing of industry knowledge.

“You really have the opportunity to interact directly with other jurisdictions that are going through the same types of challenges and seeing the same types of issues that you’re seeing,” he says. “And so you have an opportunity to exchange ideas, exchange knowledge, really get to see best practices across the different jurisdictions. You get to see the things that have worked, and the things that have not worked.”

“I just can’t brag on that group as an organization enough,” he adds, “with all the support and education, everything from public safety. Things like we’ve recently purchased a DUI simulator based on some conversations we’ve had with some of the other jurisdictions.”

Based on these discussions, Mississippi was able to implement that DUI program, which had already proven successful elsewhere, rather than invent something from scratch.

“We had a really good model that we could follow as far as a DUI simulator goes,” Graham says. “That’s just a minor example.”

As for larger projects, “We’re constructing a $100-million warehouse, and our friends up in Virginia have done that in recent years,” Graham says. “Our friends in Alabama are currently doing it. So we’ve really had an opportunity to exchange ideas and see what has worked for others and collaborate.”

NABCA has been a “tremendous organization as far as exchanging ideas and learning,” he adds. “And the NABCA staff, they provide all types of help for us as far as public safety. That is a really big mission of our organization: to keep [public safety] on the forefront of everybody’s mind, because tragedy is usually the time people talk about those things, and we try to talk about those things before the tragedy occurs.”

Challenges and Opportunities

Long removed now from the pandemic-era buying spree, the beverage alcohol industry is in a prolonged period of sales declines. Reasons for this economic correction have been much discussed on these pages.

Considering this challenging period for the industry, Graham remains clear-eyed and perceptive.

“I’ve been around for a while,” he says. “You see things that are cyclical, and you see different industries go through different challenges, and the industries don’t always go through challenges at the same time. So it can be cyclical, and it can be industry-specific. I consider this to be a pullback. It seems like more than just a just a standard pullback. It probably raises more red flags than just with standard slowdowns. And you’ve got these things that have been swirling around for a while that I think causes uncertainty. And people don’t like uncertainty.”

As examples of these things, he points to the rise of RTDs and cannabis beverages.

“The states seem to be trying to figure out how they’re going to regulate those, or if they’re going to regulate those,” he says. “The federal government, apparently, is trying to figure that out as well. That creates uncertainty. I think the markets don’t really like uncertainty; they like to know how things are going to be regulated.”

He also brings up the “better for you” movement that has made many younger consumers, especially LDA Gen Zers, turn away from alcohol for what they perceive to be healthier alternatives. But he wonders if this is more of a fad than a trend, as the same allegedly health-conscious shoppers also regularly consume questionable products like cannabis and vapes.

“There has been at least a narrative created about, ‘Hey, I’m going to avoid [alcohol] for these health reasons’. But then you go look at those folks and they’re not doing it across the board,” he says.

“And so there are some interesting consumer trends,” he adds. “I think that that the industry has got to try to figure out where that’s going. I don’t know exactly where it’s going, but you know, this market, this industry, has been around for a long time. It’s sustained, I think, tougher times for sure. And I think it will be fine. It’s going to be a matter of time.”

Graham believes it is important to try to meet these younger consumers where they are.

“You start talking about those people who are under 30 years old; how do you reach them?” he says. “Is it going to be through some brand that you’ve got to go create? You know, the proliferation of social media influencers has just been fascinating to watch, how people can influence entire groups by some video they put on the internet.”

Which is to say that he tries to see the sunny side in our Smartphone era.

“All of the advances in that area have been really tremendous the last couple of years,” he says. “So what I think is you’ll continue to see all of this with data centers and AI now. And that’s going to create even more opportunities. It’s really going to be interesting to see what happens in the next five years, I think. The people who are able to figure out how to get in and use that on the industry side, particularly, I think will be very successful.”

Work continues on the new beverage alcohol warehouse in Mississippi.

Hiring and Training

Bringing on and educating employees is a critical component of any leader’s role. At the Mississippi Department of Revenue, Graham says, “We look for people who get things done.”

“You want to find somebody who’s a self-starter and self-energized and willing to do things in our business,” he adds. “You have to have people who can go out and solve problems on their own, and don’t have to come back to you, and they don’t have to be motivated.”

Graham has noticed a shift in hiring since Covid-19.

“We saw the Great Resignation, just like everybody else did during Covid,” he recalls. “We had to change our approach to recruiting. A place like ours, historically, would have people come to us looking for jobs. Now, we have to go out and meet people where they are and do a lot more recruiting, a lot heavier recruiting, than we used to have to do before the Great Resignation.”

Once brought on board, employee training has also changed — especially for younger workers.

“I think the younger generation likes to see a lot of meaning in their work,” Graham says. “So we spend a lot of time talking with our folks and educating them about how this task that you’re doing, how that has an impact on everything from education to public safety, because we’re in the business of collecting money and providing funds to the state.”

“And so we spent a lot of time talking with our folks about the importance of what they do, because you always see that when you’re dealing with a committee, or a taxpayer who might be irate, and we like for them to see the other side of that as well, which is we’re supporting all the public functions of government,” he adds. “We’re providing most of the funding for the state. So we really spend a lot of time educating our folks on the importance of what they do and how it really helps the state operate.”

Looking ahead, Graham eagerly anticipates the completion of Mississippi’s new warehouse.

“We’re really excited about it,” he says. “It’s been a long time coming. It’s been something that we’ve been working on since 2020. We got the funding for it in 2024, and we’ve been constructing it since 2025. We’re really looking forward to completing that in 2027, and modernizing our warehouse operations so that we can provide top service to our permits in the state. We’re really excited about getting to the finish line on that.”

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