Diageo appoints Debra Crew as chief operating officer and Claudia Schubert appointed president, North America

12 July 2022: Today, Diageo has announced the appointment of Debra Crew as Chief Operating Officer, and Claudia Schubert as President, North America, effective 1 October 2022.

Debra is currently President, North America and Global Supply. As Chief Operating Officer, Debra will take accountability for driving continued performance momentum across Diageo’s markets, brands and supply operations globally, and will continue to report to Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive.

In July 2020, Debra was appointed President, North America. She has embedded greater external focus and connectivity across the market’s teams and strengthened commercial execution, resulting in market share gains and 20% organic net sales growth in fiscal 21, and 13% organic net sales growth in the first half of fiscal 22*.

Debra is the former president and CEO of Reynolds American, Inc., having previously served as president and chief operating officer, and president and chief commercial officer. Prior to that, Debra spent five years at PepsiCo, where she served as president, North America Nutrition; president, PepsiCo Americas Beverages; and president, Western Europe Region. Prior to PepsiCo, Debra held positions with Kraft Foods, Nestlé S.A., and Mars, Inc. She currently serves on the board of Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE: SWK).

With Debra’s appointment, Claudia Schubert is appointed President, North America, and will join the Diageo Executive Committee. Since being appointed President, US Spirits and Canada, in 2018, Claudia has reshaped the market’s strategy, put in place a strengthened route to market and built trusted partnerships with Diageo’s distributors in order to deliver strong growth. In fiscal 21, organic net sales grew 24% in US Spirits, and 15% in the first half of fiscal 22*. Claudia brings 20 years of market and category experience at Diageo, having led the company’s Continental and Eastern Europe, US Wines and US Control States businesses. She began her career as a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group.

Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive, commented: “Diageo has a world class executive team with significant strength and depth of experience. Debra and Claudia have proven track records as outstanding leaders inside and outside our company. Their appointments will ensure that we continue to adapt to the changing environment so that we can deliver our performance ambition while making a positive impact wherever we work, source and sell. I am excited to work more closely with Debra in her new role, and with Claudia as she joins the Executive Committee, as together we continue to build momentum and deliver long-term sustainable growth and value creation for all our stakeholders.”

 

ENDS

 

*Diageo will release its full year preliminary results for fiscal 22 on 28 July 2022.

 

Notes to editors:

• From 1 October 2022:
  • Reporting to Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive, will be Lavanya Chandrashekar, Chief Financial Officer; Debra Crew, Chief Operating Officer; Tom Shropshire, General Counsel and Company Secretary; Louise Prashad, Chief Human Resources Officer; and Dan Mobley, Global Corporate Relations Director.
  • Reporting to Debra Crew, Chief Operating Officer, will be Diageo’s regional presidents: Claudia Schubert, President, North America; Alvaro Cardenas, President, Latin America and Caribbean; John Kennedy, President, Europe and India; John O’Keeffe, President, Asia Pacific and Global Travel; Dayalan Nayager, President, Africa. Cristina Diezhandino, Chief Marketing Officer and Ewan Andrew, President, Global Supply and Procurement, will also report to Debra.
  • All of the above roles remain members of the Diageo Executive Committee, including Hina Nagarajan, Managing Director and CEO United Spirits Limited, who will continue to report to John Kennedy, President Europe and India.
• Debra Crew originally joined the Diageo plc Board as a Non-Executive Director in April 2019, before stepping down from the Board when appointed President, North America in July 2020.