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| Mr. John O’Keeffe |
Guinness Nigeria Plc, a subsidiary of Diageo Plc, has
announced a change in the leadership of the company.
Mr. John O’Keeffe, the current Managing Director/CEO has
been promoted President, Diageo Africa, joining the Diageo Executive Committee.
Mr. O’Keeffe’s new
appointment will take effect from July 1, 2015.
John will bring a
breadth of marketing and general management experience to the Executive team,
having, in addition to his Nigeria role, led Diageo’s Global Innovation, Beer
and Baileys categories.
He served as Managing Director for the Russia and Eastern
Europe business and undertaken senior marketing roles across multiple European
markets and Jamaica.
The Managing
Directors of Diageo’s in four African markets (Nigeria, South Africa, East
Africa and African Regional Markets – rest of Africa), as well the Regional
Finance Director, Africa, will be reporting
to the new President.
Since his
resumption in role as Guinness Nigeria’s Managing Director/CEO in November
2014, Mr. O’Keeffe’s has been engaged primarily with sustaining the recovery of
the business, building a fit for purpose commercial organisation.
Growing and broadening our innovation portfolio has also
been a key area of focus for Mr. O’Keeffe. Under his leadership, the
improvement in the performance of the business has accelerated.
Mr. O’Keeffe will
continue as a Non-Executive Director of Guinness Nigeria and as the Diageo
executive responsible for Diageo’s African business, will continue to stay
involved with the Nigerian business.
Guinness Nigeria
has also announced the appointment of Mr. Soren Lauridsen as Mr. O’Keeffe’s successor. Mr. Lauridsen
joins Diageo from Carlsberg and brings with him considerable experience in the
beer category and knowledge of emerging markets. During his 10 year career at
Carlsberg, Mr. Lauridsen held senior leadership roles including Regional CEO of
South Asia, based in Bangkok and Managing Director for Carlsberg India. He also
has leadership experience of working for Carlsberg in Laos and Poland. Prior to
working at Carlsberg, he worked as Category Director for Orkla Foods covering
Nordics and Eastern Europe for 3 years and held several leadership positions in
Unilever Foods for 13 years.
Mr. Lauridsen will
resume his role in May 2015 and will work alongside Mr. O’Keeffe until the end
of the financial year in June 2015 to ensure a smooth transition.
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