Diageo has announced that Ivan Menezes will be appointed Chief Executive of Diageo with effect from 1 July 2013. Paul Walsh, who will step down from the Board at the September 2013 Annual General Meeting, will retire from the company on 30 June 2014.
In the last 12 months he will focus on transitioning critical partner and external relationships to Ivan. These will include those relationships essential to recent acquisitions.
Dr Franz B. Humer, Chairman of Diageo said:
Paul is an outstanding Chief Executive. He has served our business, its shareholders, employees and partners with enormous imagination and dedication over the past 13 years. I know he is justly proud of Diageo and its people and he leaves a great legacy for his successor. The Board is immensely grateful for his ambitious and thoughtful stewardship of the business and its people. The transition process which has been put in place enables Paul to contribute his knowledge and experience during Ivan’s first year as Chief Executive Officer.
Ivan Menezes has been the chief operating officer of Diageo since March 2012. In this role he oversees the commercial operations of Diageo globally. Ivan also sits on the executive committee and the Board of Directors of Diageo plc.
Prior to his appointment as COO, Ivan was President and CEO of Diageo North America for eight years. During this period he was also made Chairman, Asia Pacific from October 2008 and Chairman, Latin America & the Caribbean from July 2011.
Ivan joined Diageo in 1997 and held various senior management positions with Guinness and then Diageo until 2004 when he was appointed President of Diageo Venture Markets. Diageo Venture Markets is a division that had direct responsibility for approximately 123 countries, representing nearly 70% of the world’s population.
Prior to his career with Diageo, 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.
Ivan holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, a post-graduate degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a BA Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.
He also serves as a non-executive director of Coach, Inc., in the United States.
“We are delighted to have a leader of Ivan’s talents and global experience to succeed Paul. The handover is being made at a time when the business is strong and Ivan takes on the role of CEO at an exciting stage of the company’s global development. The Board is confident that Ivan will inspire our organisation and Diageo will continue to achieve our medium-term performance objectives,” continued Franz.
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