Meet the H&C Collective Founders:
Alexander Lipin & Catherine Vallin

 

 

Long before H&C Collective had a name, it had two people.

 

Alexander Lipin and Catherine Vallin met at Florida International University’s hospitality program, back when neither of them had any idea they’d eventually run a company together. On paper, they were an unlikely match: a Cuban-American Miami local and a Russian international student who’d spent his early years as a competitive water polo player before finding his way into hospitality. But that’s often how the best partnerships start. Two people who see the industry differently, and somehow end up building something better because of it.

 

Today, Alexander and Catherine are the co-founders of H&C Collective, a Miami catering company known for weddings, social events, corporate programs, brand activations, and large-scale productions across the city.

 

But to understand what makes H&C Collective different, it helps to understand how they both got here.

Two Different Paths Through the Same Industry

 

After FIU, Alex and Catherine’s careers took very different routes.

 

Alex went deep into operations. He worked in cruise logistics, spent time in the trenches of South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), and moved through luxury catering roles that taught him how to run a kitchen, manage staffing, and execute complex events under pressure. He learned hospitality from the systems side: timing, logistics, financial planning, and the kind of operational discipline that keeps a 500-person event from falling apart at 6pm on a Saturday.

 

Catherine went the relationship route. She spent time with the Miami HEAT, worked in private wealth management at Morgan Stanley LATAM, and managed a private venue in Miami Beach. Every one of those roles sharpened the same muscle: how to build trust with people, read what a client actually needs, and make high-stakes moments feel effortless. She learned hospitality from the human side.

 

Neither path is more important than the other. They’re just different halves of the same equation.

How Alex and Catherine Found Their Way Back to Each Other

 

In 2014, Catherine was managing that private venue in Miami Beach when Alex, who she’d stayed in touch with since FIU, encouraged her to step into the catering and private events side of the business.

 

That’s really where the partnership began. Not with a business plan, but with two people who already trusted each other, working side by side, learning how the other one operated. Alex brought structure. Catherine brought relationships. Somewhere in the middle of client meetings, kitchen fires (sometimes literal), and back-to-back events, they became a genuine tag team where each person instinctively covers what the other doesn’t.

 

2018: H&C Collective Is Born

 

By 2018, Alex and Catherine had learned enough, built enough trust, and seen enough of how the industry worked from the inside to know they wanted to do it their own way.

 

That’s when H&C Collective became a company. Not just another catering business, but a hospitality partner built around a simple idea: hospitality isn’t only about what’s served, it’s how everything connects. The food, the timeline, the vendors, the client relationship, the team behind the scenes, all of it has to move together.

 

Lipin took on the role of Co-Founder and Director of Operations & Strategy, overseeing systems, kitchen operations, logistics, and financial planning. Vallin became Co-Founder and Director of Sales & Marketing, leading client relationships, partnerships, brand storytelling, and H&C’s presence across Miami’s event community. Both essential sides of the coin that is H&C Collective.

Where H&C Collective Is Today

 

Today, H&C Collective works across weddings, social events, corporate programs, brand and chef activations, large-scale activations, logistics, and event consulting throughout Miami and South Florida. The company has become a trusted partner within the local event community, working alongside leading planners, producers, vendors, and historic venues across the city.

 

That work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Lipin was named to BizBash’s 2026 40 Under 40, recognized for his operations and strategy leadership at H&C. Vallin was named one of Brickell Magazine’s Top 20 Professionals Under Forty, recognized for her role in sales, marketing, and client relationships. Both honors are, in a way, proof of the same thing: that the two sides of H&C, structure and relationships, are both working exactly as intended.

 

Alexander Lipin & Chef Phuoc Vo

H&C Collective Team

The Collective Behind the Collective

 

Alex and Catherine are just two parts of the puzzle. The team, made up of chefs, service staff, planners, vendors, and long-term collaborators, brings the collective. That combination is what allows H&C to move comfortably between an intimate backyard wedding and a large-scale brand activation without losing the same level of care in either one.

 

It started with two people at FIU who didn’t know they’d end up running a company of their own some day.

 

Now it’s Alexander Lipin and Catherine Vallin, co-founders of H&C Collective, still building the same way they started: together.

 

 

Learn more about H&C Collective, a Miami catering company creating thoughtful food, beverage, and hospitality experiences for weddings, corporate events, brand activations, chef collaborations, and large-scale productions across South Florida.