Deirdre Mahlan returns to Diageo as interim CFO
Former Diageo president of North America, Deirdre Mahlan, will return to the company as interim chief financial officer (CFO).
Mahlan originally left Diageo in July 2020 – at the time serving as its president of North America – to retire after 27 years at the company. She had also previously held the position of CFO from 2010 to 2015.
Mahlan will now fill the CFO void left by Nik Jhangiani, who is currently in place as Diageo’s chief executive officer (CEO) having assumed the role on an interim basis following Debra Crew’s immediate departure from the company on 16 July.
Mahlan will officially take up the position on 18 August.
Jhangiani said Mahlan “brings extensive spirits and functional expertise to the interim chief financial officer role, complemented with deep knowledge of Diageo and its operations”.
He added: “I am delighted that she has agreed to return on an interim basis and I have full confidence that she will provide invaluable guidance to our teams, and partner with me as we deliver on our Accelerate programme to drive long term sustainable growth.”
After leaving Diageo in 2020, Mahlan went on to serve as interim president, CEO, and chairperson of The Duckhorn Portfolio ahead of the wine company’s sale to Butterfly Equity.
Diageo will now be hoping for stability following a merry-go-round period at the top of its leadership chain, with its 2025 preliminary financial results set to be revealed next week.
For the first three months of 2025, Diageo reported an unaudited organic sales growth of 5.9% to US$4.37 billion, compared with the same period in 2024.
In its full-year outlook, the company expects to deliver a ‘sequential improvement’ in organic net sales growth for the second half of fiscal 2025.
Diageo is putting faith in its Tequila portfolio this year, and launched a ‘back to basics’ campaign for Casamigos in February to boost awareness and sales.
However, the company is facing a class action lawsuit against the marketing of its Tequila brands, Casamigos and Don Julio, which Diageo has refuted as ‘baseless’.
In March, Diageo dropped its support of the Distill Ventures accelerator programme in a move that saw job losses.
Related news
Diageo CEO Debra Crew steps down
