SCOTCH whisky giant Diageo has appointed its incoming chief executive to the role ahead of schedule after current boss Sir Ivan Menezes suffered a "significant setback" following emergency surgery on a stomach ulcer.
Debra Crew, the company’s chief operating officer who had been due to succeed Sir Ivan on July 1, has become interim chief executive of the Johnnie Walker, Guinness, and Gordon’s Gin maker with immediate effect.
Diageo told the stock market this morning that Sir Ivan, who was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours list, is “currently in hospital receiving treatment for medical conditions including a stomach ulcer”.
READ MORE: Scottish business figures recognised in New Year honours
The company said in a statement: “Over the weekend, we learned that Ivan's recovery suffered a significant setback due to complications, which followed emergency surgery on the ulcer.
“As a result of these developments, the board of directors has appointed Debra Crew interim chief executive officer with immediate effect, ahead of her appointment as chief executive officer and joining the board as an executive director on 1 July 2023. As previously announced, Ivan will retire from the board on 30 June 2023.
“Our thoughts are with our much-loved colleague, Ivan, and his family.
“Out of respect for Ivan and his family's privacy, we will not be commenting further at this time.”
READ MORE: Scotch whisky giant Diageo unveils new chief executive
Sir Ivan has led Diageo for nearly 10 years, having originally joined through the merger of Guinness plc and Grand Metropolitan plc in 1997. He went on to hold a number of senior positions, including chief operating officer, president of Diageo North America, chairman of Diageo Asia Pacific, and chairman of Diageo Latin America and Caribbean. He has been chief executive of the company since July 2013.
Ms Crew originally joined the Diageo board as a non-executive director in April 2019, before stepping down from the board when appointed president of Diageo North America in July 2020. Before being appointed chief operating officer in October, she was president of Diageo North America and Global Supply.
Ms Crew is the former president and chief executive of Reynolds American. Before her time with Reynolds, she spent five years at Pepsico, prior to which she held positions with Kraft Foods, Nestle SA and Mars Inc.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here