The Carlsberg Group has announced that, after over seven years with the company, chief commercial officer Jessica Spence has decided to leave the group.
She will depart her role as CCO and as a member of the Executive Committee on 30 September.
Spence joined Carlsberg in 2012, and she currently leads Carlsberg’s global marketing, sales, insights, R&D and innovation functions.
Strong Commitment
She previously served as Carlsberg’s Senior Vice President Commercial based in Copenhagen, and in senior commercial and marketing roles for Carlsberg Asia based in Hong Kong.
Prior to joining Carlsberg, Spence held marketing roles of increasing responsibility for SABMiller in Russia, Slovakia and Poland, as well as in business development based in London.
Chief executive of Carlsberg, Cees ‘t Hart, said that he would “like to thank Jessica for her strong commitment to the Carlsberg Group, and we wish her every success in her new endeavours”.
The Carlsberg Group said that it will announce Jessica’s replacement in due course, but that Robbie Millar, VP Global Marketing, will take on departmental leadership of group commercial in the meantime.
President Of Brands
Spence is set to take up a brand new position in Beam Suntory as president of brands. She will be based in the US.
In this new role, Spence will have profit and loss responsibility for Beam Suntory’s largest global brands, working closely with the region presidents to lead the company’s global premiumisation agenda.
She will report directly to president and CEO, Albert Baladi, who welcomed his new “true global enterprise leader with an impressive track record and the passion to match”.
Speaking of the appointment, Baladi said, “With a powerful combination of brand-building leadership and commercial prowess, Jessica is the perfect fit for this new role, for our strategic ambitions, and for our culture.”
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
