Alcoholic beverage company, Diageo Australia, has conducted a global recruitment process to fill the commercial director and new head of premix growth positions on its leadership team.
The company, which handles brands including Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Smirnoff, and Bailey’s, has appointed Nicole Dennis as the new commercial director. She has been working with Diageo for 10 years, spending the past two years leading commercial transformation in its South Korea and Japan branches.
After already acting as commercial director for the past three months, she will now be officially taking over, effective immediately, from Chris Shaw, who was appointed in February 2019.
The company stated that in those three months Dennis had already made an impact, “demonstrating outstanding commercial acumen, along with her commitment to our customers, to performance and to partnership”.
“She was the standout candidate through a rigorous global recruitment process and brings to the role a deep understanding of both Diageo’s business and the Australian market landscape,” stated the company.
Diageo Australia is also establishing two Commercial Excellence teams, one focused on bottled spirits and the other focused exclusively on the premix/RTD format. The Premix Growth team will be led by Jodi McLeod, who will work closely with Diageo’s brand teams to market its expanding premix portfolio.
McLeod is an experienced marketer, having overseen brands including Bundaberg Rum and Johnnie Walker in her 10 years with the company, and will be taking up the role effective immediately.
Diageo Australia is also shuffling its finance leaders – from September, current finance director, Mark Harvie, will be moving to a new role in the business.
Returning to the role will be Lisa McElduff, who was most recently the finance director for Diageo Great Britain. She aims to use her experience within the Australia branch, from 2004-2020, to shape and execute the company’s long-term growth strategy.
All positions will report to current Diageo Australia managing director, Dan Hamilton, who took up the role in October 2023.
