Heineken, Coca-Cola and Bacardi are among the companies welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Heineken, Coca-Cola and Bacardi are among the companies welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Stacey Tank, Heineken’s Chief Transformation and Corporate Affairs Officer, has decided to leave the company to re-join her family who moved to the United States a year ago due to the illness of one of her children.
Tank (pictured left) first joined Heineken in 2012, where she ran the Corporate Relations function at Heineken USA until 2015, followed by a move to The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, as Chief Communications Officer and President of The Home Depot Foundation. In 2020 she returned to Heineken in her current role and moved to the Netherlands.
Her last day in the business will be 4 August 2023.
Tank will be replaced by Joanna Price (pictured right) as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer from 1 July 2023. Price will join Heineken’s Executive Team, reporting to Dolf van den Brink, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board. Her role as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer encompasses the areas of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Sustainable Development and Global Communications.
Price comes with more than 20 years of global experience working with companies to improve their reputation and drive growth.
She joins Heineken from The Coca-Cola Company where she was the North American Senior Vice President for Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, based in Atlanta, Georgia. An Australian citizen, Joanna started her career in marketing in News Corp Australia followed by AC Nielsen. She joined Kellogg’s in 1998 and was promoted to Director of Nutrition and Consumer Insight.
Joanna’s 20-year career in Corporate Affairs with Coca-Cola began in 2003 in Australia, where she was quickly moved into more senior roles, before being promoted to Group Director, Asia Pacific Public Affairs and Communications in 2011, based in Shanghai. Three years later she moved to the headquarters in the USA, where she became Global VP Communications. During her time at Coca-Cola, she is credited with playing a pivotal role driving change and transformation across some of their most important strategic pillars, including the total beverage/reduced sugar strategy and World Without Waste.
At this time, Heineken will also split the Corporate Affairs Function and the Transformation Network. Jasper Hamaker, Senior Director Global Transformation, will now report directly to Dolf van den Brink.
Jason Reed, Senior Vice President, Product Supply Network for Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (Coke Florida) has been elected Chairperson of the Coca-Cola system’s National Product Supply Group (NPSG) Board of Directors.
NPSG administers key national product supply activities for Coca-Cola system bottlers, including product sourcing. Formed as a governing body in 2015, the Board consists of representatives of The Coca-Cola Company (“TCCC”) and all Regional Producing Bottlers (“RPB”).
As Chairperson of the NPSG Board of Directors, Reed will continue exercising his extensive strategic leadership and operations experience in logistics, manufacturing, and supply chain. He has represented Coke Florida on the NPSG Board since 2017.
Reed joined Coke Florida in 2016 as Vice President of Manufacturing Operations after holding executive positions as Vice President of Manufacturing and Director of Manufacturing Strategy with The Coca-Cola Company. Today, he oversees Coke Florida’s supply chain network, including governance, innovation execution, and cost optimization. The company has significantly transformed its product supply network operations through investments in infrastructure, process improvement, and people capability. Established in 2015 and now serving 21 million consumers and distributing over 119 million cases of product annually, Coke Florida is the third largest privately held and the sixth largest Coca-Cola bottler in the United States.
With tenure at Coke Florida, Coca-Cola Refreshments, and Coca-Cola Enterprises, Reed has served over two decades in the Coca-Cola system. He earned a BBA in Operations Management from the University of Texas and resides in Tampa, Florida.
The National Product Supply Group Board of Directors elected Reed to the Chairperson position on May 19, 2023, following the retirement of Stan Ellington, a founding Board member who served as Chairperson since 2018.
Bacardi Limited has appointed Alicia Enciso to the company’s Board of Directors.
Enciso brings more than 30 years of experience with multinational Fortune 100 Companies in the Food and Beverages sectors with roles as General Manager, President, Chief Marketing Officer, and E-Business Officer. Since 2017, she has served as Chief Marketing Officer of Nestlé USA and previously served as President of the Beverages Division. She recently announced her retirement from Nestlé.
Prior roles include Principal Consultant and Managing Director of Zyman Group, a subsidiary of MDC Partners and various marketing leadership roles at Procter & Gamble and Estée Lauder.
Originally from Mexico, Enciso has been recognized as one of “Most Influential 100 Latinas” by Latino Leaders Magazine and named “Latino Marketer of the Year” by the Hispanic Marketing Council. She also serves on the Executive Board for the Association of National Advertisers and the Board of the Alliance for Multicultural & Inclusive Marketing. She previously sat on the Advisory Board of Google 21st Century Marketing.
The Bacardi Limited Board of Directors is comprised of 13 members.
Charleston, South Carolina craft spirits company, Grain & Barrel Spirits, has appointed John Drakeford as the company’s new General Manager.
An accomplished industry veteran with decades of executive leadership experience, Drakeford will lead Grain & Barrel’s executive team and will play an integral role in growing the company’s portfolio of spirits including Chicken Cock Whiskey, the largest brand within Grain & Barrel’s portfolio and one of the fastest growing ultra premium whiskeys in the US.
Drakeford, who is based in Columbia, SC, joins the team after serving as General Manager of multiple regions at Beam Suntory, where he worked since 2006, and a member of the North American Leadership Team.
Grain & Barrel – which develops and scales craft spirits – has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America three years in a row.
Stoli Group, an ultra-premium spirits and wines company headquartered in Luxembourg, has appointed a master distiller for Cenote Tequila, Miguel Cedeño-Cruz.
Cenote Tequila is described as an ‘ultra-premium 100% Agave Azul Tequila with a complex flavor profile that balances fragrant cooked agave with delicate wood notes’. Cedeño-Cruz brings extensive experience, skill, and innovation to his role as master distiller in which he will be responsible for overseeing the production processes, quality control, and strategic development of the brand.
Hailing from Guadalajara, Mexico, Cedeño-Cruz brings with him expansive knowledge of the tequila industry. His experience includes serving as tequila manager at Diageo Mexico, president of several technical committees in the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT), professor for the Alcohol School from Alltech Institute of Brewing and Distilling, master distiller for the Tequila National Chamber, developer of tequila brands for Sazerac and E&J Gallo (among others), operation director in Tequila Herradura and Brown-Forman, and Diageo contractor for sustainability projects.
Cedeño-Cruz is tapped to speak at conferences around the globe including in Mexico, the US, Canada, UK and Ireland. Of note, Cedeño-Cruz has presented the tequila process to world leaders over the past few years including the presidents of Mexico (Felipe Calderon), the US (Barack Obama), and Canada (Stephen Harper).
The Board of Britvic is pleased to announce that Ian Durant has commenced his tenure as Chair of Britvic plc. Durant succeeds John Daly, who retired from the Board on 31 May after eight years on the Board, six of which were spent as Chair of the UK soft drinks company.
Durant has many years of experience in consumer facing businesses and in retail. He currently serves as the Chair of Warren Partners Ltd, having recently stepped down as Chair of Greggs plc and has previously served as Chair of DFS Furniture plc and Capital & Countries Properties plc in the last five years. His earlier career included senior leadership roles at Liberty International Plc and Thistle Hotels. Other boards he has served on as a Non-Executive Director include Greene King plc, Home Retail Group PLC and Westbury plc.
Durant was appointed Chair designate on 1 February and since been involved in an orderly handover of responsibilities with Daly.
Diageo CEO Sir Ivan Menezes passed away following a brief illness, the British spirits and beer giant announced on June 7.
Ivan Manuel Menezes was born in 1959, in Pune, India. He held UK and US citizenship, and Overseas Citizenship for India. He joined Diageo at its creation in 1997 and held many senior positions in a career spanning more than 25 years at the company.
Prior to his career with Diageo, Sir Ivan worked across a variety of sales, marketing and strategy roles for Whirlpool in Europe, Booz Allen & Hamilton in North America, and Nestlé in Asia.
In January 2023, Ivan was awarded a Knighthood for services to Business and to Equality in His Majesty The King’s 2023 New Year Honours List.
Javier Ferrán, Chairman, Diageo plc, said: “Ivan was undoubtedly one of the finest leaders of his generation. He was there at the creation of Diageo and over 25 years, shaped Diageo to become one of the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer companies.
"I saw first-hand his steadfast commitment to our people and to creating a culture that enabled everyone to thrive. He invested his time and energy in people at every level of the company and saw potential that others may have overlooked. This is one of many reasons why he was beloved by our employees, past and present.
“Ivan’s energy and his commitment to diversity created a truly inclusive business and enabled Diageo to have a positive impact on the communities we serve. His passion for our brands was second-to-none and in his heart, he remained the Johnnie Walker marketer from his early days. The desire to build the world’s best brands never left him.
“We are truly privileged to have had the opportunity to work alongside such a thoughtful and passionate colleague and friend - a true gentleman. He has built an extraordinary legacy.
“Ivan leaves behind many friends and a beloved family, and our thoughts are particularly with his wife, Shibani and his two children, Nikhil and Rohini. On behalf of the Board, Executive Committee and all our employees, we extend our deepest sympathies to them.”
Having served as Chief Executive Officer since 2013, Menezes was due to retire at the end of this month. Debra Crew took on the role as CEO on June 5, a month earlier than initially planned.
