Beer Marketer's Insights - Diageo Beer Prexy Rodney Williams to Leave; Laura Merritt Promoted Effective July

The rotating cast of Diageo execs is continuing apace these days. Diageo Beer Co prexy Rodney Williams "made the difficult decision to leave Diageo to pursue the next chapter of his career and will take up an external Board appointment after the summer," co shared with INSIGHTS following internal announcement. Laura Merritt, current svp of marketing for DBC & Convenience, will be promoted to president of "DBC and Pre-Mix" effective July 1, 2024. And Rodney and Laura "will work closely through the transition until he leaves Diageo at the end of September." Rodney, an ex-Moet Hennessy vet, will have served in his role with Diageo Beer for just over 2 yrs when all's said and done, officially joining in Sep 2022. News comes as Diageo Beer Co USA returned to volume growth in fiscal 1st half (Jul-Dec 2023), Guinness began heating up this spring/summer (see below), and Captain Morgan Sliced is adding incremental sales. Tho Smirnoff Ice cooled off a bit lately and Lone River continues to slip double-digits in 2024 scans.More broadly, Rodney's announcement follows a series of big exec changes for Diageo as its spirits biz remains soft in the US and abroad. In less than 1 yr, Diageo's ceo, cfo, coo, and North America ceo have all changed. Ivan Menezes announced retirement in late Mar 2023 and sadly passed away in June 2023, slightly expediting Debra Crew's promotion to ceo. Sally Grimes joined as ceo of North America in Oct 2023 while Claudia Schubert moved up to global coo, and Diageo cfo Lavanya Chandrashekar stepped down in early May 2024 with Nik Jhangiani stepping in. These moves ultimately led to a significant amount of change in US leadership, moving from Debra to Claudia to Sally in North America and from Nuno Teles to Rodney to Laura at Diageo Beer Co.Laura's coming into the Diageo Beer prexy role with fresh perspective, joining Diageo Beer as marketing svp just 1 year ago previously working outside the industry largely in food CPG sector. Her most recent roles include: president of Tacombi, veep of marketing, new ventures and innovation for Kind and veep of marketing and gm of chips biz unit for Campbells Soup Co, all held since Oct 2017, per LinkedIn. "Since joining Diageo, Laura has led the development of Diageo's Pre-Mix strategy in the North America market, overseeing the launch of The Cocktail Collection, Captain Morgan Sliced, and numerous other Ready-to-Serve and Ready-to-Drink offerings," co highlighted. She also "developed a successful brand partnership" with Trevor Noah on Smirnoff Ice, "led the refreshed look of Lone River," and worked with Rodney and brand team to develop Guinness "Lovely Day" campaign. Stay tuned.

Diageo Beer Prexy Rodney Williams to Leave; Laura Merritt Promoted Effective July

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