Robert McMillian has been in business in West Virginia for 37 years, much of that time as a beer distributor in Martinsburg, West Virginia. A major business figure in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, McMillan has been active in West Virginia’s business and educational arenas for much of those nearly four decades.

A native of Charleston, West Virginia, McMillan serves as president and CEO of Martinsburg-based Jefferson Distributing Company, a company he purchased in 1986. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a MBA from Emory University.

Prior to purchasing the distributorship, McMillian was president and CEO of Charleston-based McDonough-Caperton-Shepherd Association Group, an insurance business in which he worked for former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton for eight years. He also worked for Mobil Oil Corporation and mortgage bankers and investors prior to that. He was in the U.S. Navy for a term, and was honorably discharged in June 1969 as a lieutenant.

McMillan serves on the West Virginia University Foundation Board of Directors, where he also chairs the Investment Committee. He also serves on the boards of directors for United Bank and the Eastern Area Health Education Center. He is a former member and chair of the Shepherd University Board of Governors and a former member and trustee of the University System of West Virginia.