Diageo North America streamlines commercial team
Diageo North America has announced changes to its commercial leadership structure that will see various teams brought together “to deliver as one organisation”.
Diageo North America has announced changes to its commercial leadershipEffective October 1, Tom Looney will expand his role to include Diageo Canada and National Accounts, adopting the title of president, US Spirits and Diageo Canada.
Looney will take National Accounts duties from Jeff Ivey, who has announced his retirement, while the Diageo Canada business will be transferred to him from Jakob Ripshtein, Diageo North America CFO and president Diageo Canada.
Peter Kourtis will continue to lead the Canada sales organisation as general manager, and will report to Looney.
Ripshtein will continue in his role as CFO for North America, singularly focused on leading the North America Finance function and reporting to Deirdre Mahlan, president, Diageo North America.
“The changes we are announcing today will support our business strategy and productivity goals,” said Mahlan.
“This is part of an ongoing effort to ensure that our strategic assets – our people and culture, brands, processes and technology – are positioned optimally so that we can reinvest in our business to deliver sustained performance.
“In Canada, the changes we are making to our structure and reporting lines are designed to strengthen this important business leveraging our North America resources more fully.
“We are very fortunate to have someone with Peter’s depth of knowledge and experience in both the Canadian and US business leading our Canada team.”
As the transition gets underway, Ivey will remain to support the process until June 30, 2017.
“With a long career in this industry, Jeff’s leadership and vision has helped shape leading commercial execution in Diageo and in our dedicated distributors,” added Mahlan.
“Jeff is known as a thoughtful, strategic leader whose experience has helped him navigate the complexities of our industry in ways that have helped move our business forward, especially with regard to distributor alignment. I wish him the best in his retirement.”
