Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits and New Belgium Brewing are among the companies welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits and New Belgium Brewing are among the companies welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Shaun Belongie, New Belgium Brewing’s Chief Marketing Officer of 5 years, will become its next Chief Executive Officer.
Following the departure of former CEO Steve Fechheimer, Lion Group – which acquired the Fort Collins brewery in 2019 – considered a range of internal and external candidates.
Lion Group CEO Sam Fischer said: “Shaun’s breadth of experience, innovative mindset, commercial acumen and great love of the New Belgium culture and coworkers makes Shaun an excellent fit to lead the team. I also want to thank and acknowledge Danielle McLarnon for her exceptional leadership as Interim CEO, and she will continue to play a crucial role as New Belgium’s Chief Financial Officer.”
Belongie will take the helm of a business that has seen strong growth over the last several years. New Belgium is North America’s largest craft beer platform, with an unrivaled portfolio after joining forces with Bell’s Brewery in 2022.
Brands include Voodoo Ranger and Fat Tire – America’s first certified carbon neutral beer - Two Hearted and Oberon, along with popular and innovative brands like Dominga Mimosa Sour, Hopslam, La Folie and an award-winning wood-aged sour program.
In Belongie’s role as Chief Marketing Officer he successfully built Voodoo Ranger: with sales tripling from 3 million to 9 million cases over a three-year period, including launching Juice Force in 2022, the biggest innovation by sales in craft beer history.
Overseeing both New Belgium and Bell’s portfolios since they joined forces in 2022, he successfully led the integration of the Bell’s marketing team and developed the “Never Trend” brand platform for Bell’s Two Hearted IPA, driving renewed growth momentum for the brand.
Prior to joining New Belgium Brewing, Belongie worked for more than a decade in a variety of finance, sales, and marketing roles at Kraft Foods and Nestle Purina, the latter where he led flagship brands with a highly innovative approach to product development, branding, and digital strategy. Belongie holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Marquette University and earned an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in Saint Louis.
The organization will share details in the near future on plans for filling the vacant Chief Marketing Officer role.
Beverage alcohol distributor Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits has promoted Craig Goossen to the position Executive Vice President and General Manager of Arizona.
In this role, Goossen will report to Patrick Daul, Southern Glazer’s President, Western Region, and will be responsible for leading and overseeing the Arizona Division.
Goossen’s promotion will be effective at the end of 2023 following the retirement of current Executive Vice President, General Manager, Arizona – Tom Boyle.
Goossen’s career with Southern Glazer’s began in 1993 when he joined in a sales management role. Following a brief departure in 2000 to oversee his family business, Goossen returned to Southern Glazer’s in 2011 as a Trade Development Manager. He then progressed to Director of Sales and within the span of a year, in 2019, was promoted to his most current position of Vice President of Sales.
JAB Holding Company has announced that Managing Partner Joachin Creus has been appointed CEO of JAB. Creus will also continue to serve as Vice Chairman of the JAB Board and is the designated successor to Chairman Peter Harf.
JAB is the largest shareholder of Keurig Dr Pepper and Krispy Kreme; and the controlling shareholder of JDE Peet’s, the world’s leading pure play coffee and tea company; Pret a Manger and Scandinavian coffee chain Espresso House.
Since joining JAB in 2010, Creus has played a ‘critical role’ in establishing JAB into a global investment firm focused on consumer goods and services. In his more than 13 years with the firm, he has helped drive JAB’s major investments and expansion initiatives, including all of its platform acquisitions and the creation of JAB Consumer Partners.
Creus takes over from Olivier Goudet, who has been CEO since January 2012. During this time, Goudet led JAB’s strategic transformation, nearly tripling the investment firm’s equity as it built leading investment platforms across the coffee & beverages, petcare, fast-casual restaurants, indulgence, and beauty & luxury sectors.
Of note, Goudet introduced JAB’s coffee and beverage strategy, resulting in the formation of JDE Peet’s and the creation of Keurig Dr Pepper. Upon Creus’ appointment, Goudet will become a Senior Investment Advisor and will continue to serve in his capacity as a Board Director across certain JAB portfolio companies.
JAB also announced that Frank Engelen has been promoted to Managing Partner, effective immediately. Engelen joined JAB in 2020.
Before joining the company, Engelen worked more than 15 years as a partner at PwC, where he was a trusted advisor to JAB since 2013. During his time with PwC, he also served as a member of the Management Board of the Dutch firm for five years, leading the deals and consulting business, and as a member of the Executive Board of PwC Europe for two years. He has more than 25 years of financial and executive business experience, particularly in consumer goods and financial services.
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) – the UK’s consumer organisation dedicated to representing beer drinkers and pub-goers – has appointed its new Vice Chairman, Ash Corbett-Collins.
The change to this key role follows the recent CAMRA National Executive meeting, which took place in Warrington.
Corbett-Collins was first elected to the National Executive in 2018. He sits on a number of committees and has held several key national roles. He has been a CAMRA member since 2011.
Corbett-Collins replaces Abigail Newton who has stood down from the role but remains a National Executive member for the rest of her term, including leading the People Committee.
One of Corbett-Collins’ focuses will be organisation’s Digital Futures initiative.
Taking up the position, he commented: “I am excited to step into this role. During the last five years I have taken on several national strategic committee roles and I am looking forward to this new role as CAMRA continues its journey.
“We have more than 150,000 members all enthusiastic about live beer, pubs and campaigning for change. This new role will allow me to support and collaborate even more closely with the national chairman and my National Executive colleagues.”
Tom Shropshire, a current trustee of Comic Relief, has become the UK charity’s interim Chair.
Shropshire, who will succeed Eric Salama as Chair, has been a trustee since 2018 and has most recently acted as the Senior Independent Trustee.
Tom is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of Diageo plc and is a Member of the Court of the Bank of England. He was formerly a partner at a leading international law firm and has become an internationally recognised leader in governance and sustainability, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion.
Comic Relief is best known for Red Nose Day, an annual fundraising telethon held in the UK in March.
