From PepsiCo to Bacardi, we take a look at some of the people taking up top jobs in the beverage industry this month.
From PepsiCo to Bacardi, we take a look at some of the people taking up top jobs in the beverage industry this month.
Lion Little World Beverages has announced Adrian Mooney as Marketing Director for Europe and Asia, in a move to accelerate take-up of craft beer.
Mooney brings with him strong entrepreneurial and brand building experience, having run a start-up for two years in London as well as Marketing Director roles at Heinz, McVitie’s, Britvic and Tetley.
Little World Beverages was launched in 2020 and represents a unique domestic and international portfolio of craft beer including UK Top 10 brands, Fourpure Brewing Co and Magic Rock Brewing as well as Australian craft brewery, Little Creatures and US IPA beer leader, New Belgium Brewing.
Meanwhile, John Wright has been appointed as Head of Digital Growth, an expert increasing traffic and building consumer engagement and conversion and is launching new Magic Rock and Fourpure websites as well as Little World’s new B2B website. Wright joins the business with over ten years of experience of running his own digital consultancy, focusing on marketing and website services before spending two years with Chillisauce Events working on B2C and B2B projects, and helping generate £20m annual revenue.
Lauren Barnett has also joined as Social & Community Manager: her role will be to help expand social reach and drive connections into new online and offline communities across all brands.
Chris MacRae has joined the team as the UK’s Voodoo Ranger Brand Developer. His experiential agency experience is perfect for a hybrid remit that covers marketing and experience on premise to introduce 18-30 gamers to “Live Rangerously.” He also looks after social media, Twitch and gaming influencers to help reach this audience.
Working closely with marketing, Stefan Boxall joins as Head of Hospitality UK and brings over 25 years of experience within the industry with Revolution Bars, Café De Paris and other leading West End operations. Boxall oversees Bermondsey, Huddersfield and Holmfirth taprooms as well as the Little Creatures Kings Cross tap and microbrewery that showcases all brands. Supporting Boxall is Chloe Webber, Sales and Events Manager, charged with developing corporate relationships and events in the venue pulling on her experiences at Revolution Bars.
Coca-Cola Bottling Company United has announced two executive leadership changes. Mike Suco has been named Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer; while Crawford Jones has been named Vice President, East Region.
As senior vice president and chief commercial officer, Mike Suco is responsible for numerous areas critical to the execution of the company’s commercial plan, including the National Retail Customer Group, Revenue Growth Management, Corporate Marketing and the On Premise organization.
Suco returned to the company’s corporate headquarters in Birmingham following five years in Atlanta, where he was vice president of the company’s East Region and responsible for all sales and distribution activities within United’s Georgia territory. In 2016, under his leadership, the company acquired 10 new facilities and market territories in Georgia, and transitioned more than 2,000 new employees and approximately 30,000 new customers into the company. The Atlanta Market Unit was the single largest acquisition in United’s history.
Prior to his role in Atlanta, Suco served as corporate vice president of operational marketing and commercial leadership in the company’s Birmingham headquarters. He began his career in the Coca-Cola System in 1996 as a market development manager for The Coca-Cola Company. He joined Coca-Cola UNITED in 2000 as director of marketing and key accounts.
Crawford Jones, a native of Birmingham, succeeds Suco as vice president of the company’s East Region, based in Atlanta. Jones is responsible for sales and distribution of Coca-Cola products within the state of Georgia. The East Region represents approximately one-third of the revenues for Coca-Cola United and includes facilities in the following locations throughout Georgia: Metro Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, Brunswick, Dublin, Gainesville, Lawrenceville, Macon, Milledgeville, McRae, Savannah, Statesboro, Sylvester and Waycross.
For the past decade, Jones has served as senior director of customer management and price revenue growth management, overseeing all national retail customers, pricing and revenue management for the company. Jones started working in the Coca‑Cola System in 2004 with another independent bottler, Coca‑Cola Consolidated, as a management trainee. He joined Coca-Cola United in 2007 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a management trainee and later held the roles of key account manager and key account director.
Coffee company illycaffè has welcomed Jack Edwards as President of its North America division.
Edwards comes to illycaffe after nearly two decades with Diageo. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Sales and National Accounts for The Diageo Beer Company USA, where he led a team of 115 people and a distributor network responsible for Guinness, Smirnoff Ice, and other major and emerging brands.
Edwards’ career at Diageo started in Chicago in finance, before moving into cross-functional positions spanning portfolio planning, marketing, and sales. He transferred to the company’s Norwalk, CT U.S. headquarters in 2005, where he managed regional sales teams and earned additional responsibilities. During this time, Jack helped launch several successful new innovations and drove significant growth on brands including Bulleit Bourbon and Ciroc Vodka.
Edwards holds an MBA degree in Business Administration from the Kellogg Business School at Northwestern University. Prior to joining Diageo, he was an auditor at KPMG.
Bacardi Limited has promoted Kerry Carr to its Global Leadership Team. In her expanded role as SVP Global Performance Management she adds Revenue Growth Management and Bacardi Enterprise Services to her existing portfolio which already includes strategic projects, global reporting and metrics to drive business performance.
Carr, who joined Bacardi in 2014, has been responsible for spearheading global performance management. “From building analytical tools and frameworks, to understanding drivers of performance, to driving year-end results, Kerry has helped ensure dynamic resource allocation, which was particularly valuable while managing the business during a global pandemic,” says Bacardi.
She was also integral in the integration of Patrón, following the 2018 acquisition of the super-premium tequila.
A 30-year veteran of consumer goods companies, Kerry brings expertise in operations, supply chain, organizational design and finance with global brands including The Walt Disney Company and Avon Products at the local, regional and corporate levels. She spent much of her career executing programs across international operations in Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, as well as at the global level.
PepsiCo has appointed C.D. Glin as Vice President, Global Head of Philanthropy, for The PepsiCo Foundation.
Taking on the role next week, Glin will be responsible for the daily management of the Foundation. He will also oversee the Foundation's strategic direction and continued focus on driving progress towards a more sustainable food system. In addition, he will lead global internal and external engagement around The PepsiCo Foundation's three core pillars: Nutrition, Water, and Economic Resilience. He will report to Jon Banner, Executive Vice President, Global Communications and President of The PepsiCo Foundation.
Glin is currently President and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF): an Africa-focused philanthropic organization established by Congress to invest grant capital, build capacity, and scale locally owned, sustainable solutions for underserved and agricultural-dependent populations. In that role, he led strategy, operations, and strategic partnerships across 21 country offices and has awarded over $150m in funding to more than 1,500 grassroots enterprises, non-profits, and community-based organizations.
Prior to USADF, Glin was an Associate Director in Nairobi, Kenya, at The Rockefeller Foundation. While there, he led YieldWise, a $130m effort to improve incomes and create jobs for smallholder farmers by reducing post-harvest crop loss and promoting sustainable sourcing in agriculture value chains.
Before The Rockefeller Foundation, Glin served as the first Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Global Partnerships at the Peace Corps as an Obama Administration appointee. Earlier in his career, Glin was Vice President, Business Development at PYXERA Global, a non-profit development consulting firm, an independent economic development and community engagement consultant based in Lagos and Kano, Nigeria and served as one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers in South Africa.
Glin earned a BA from Howard University in Washington, DC; a Master's Certificate in Business Management from Freeman School of Business at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA; and a Master's level Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from the Said Business School at the University of Oxford in the UK. He also completed the Leadership for Senior Executives Program at Harvard Business School.
In 2020, PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation invested $71m and worked with over 250 partners to bring food and other resources to more than 1,000 communities in over 60 countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Foundation also catalyzed an additional $59m from other donors and engaged 7,000 employees in over 40 countries to deliver 145 million nutritious meals to at-risk populations.
Britvic PLC has announced Pedro Magalhães as the new Managing Director of its Brazil operations, following the retirement of João Caetano de Mello Neto.
Magalhães joined the business in 2009 and was responsible for leading the transaction team when Britvic acquired Ebba in 2015. He has been a key member of the Brazil executive team since then, most recently holding the role of Finance Director. Previous positions have included roles in supply chain, and he has been acting as strategic and commercial business partner in preparation for his transition into his new role.
Under de Mello Neto’s leadership Britvic Brazil has grown steadily, and last year achieved a record performance across both concentrates and ready-to-drink juice, becoming the number one supplier in this category.
The local team has expanded the range to include a number of Britvic brands including Fruit Shoot, London Essence Co and most recently the Mathieu Teisseire premium range of syrups alongside new product launches in the coconut and ice tea categories with the addition of ready-to-drink Puro Coco and Natural Tea.
Magalhães will report to CEO Simon Litherland and joins the Britvic Executive team.