Heineken USA
SCOTT BLAZEK has been appointed Senior VP-Sales. Most recently, Blazek was the company’s Regional VP-Central – leading a team of 😯 sales and marketing professionals across Heineken’s second largest region in the US. Blazek spent ten years at Diageo, where he held positions of increasing responsibility, including Director of National... Read More
Patrón Spirits
Phil Gervasi has joined the company as Executive VP-Sales, North America – working with US distributor partners, and leading Patrón tequila, Ultimat vodka and Pyrat rum sales teams. He will also manage development of the Patrón portfolio in Canada. Gervasi joins Patrón Spirits from Diageo North America, where he was... Read More
The Hess Collection
Michael Morganti joins the company as New England Regional Sales Manager. Most recently he served as the Northern California District Manager for Kobrand. Prior to that, he was the Northern California Regional Manager forThe Grateful Palate, focusing primarily on its Australian portfolio. Morganti is a Boston native and at the... Read More
BACARDI LIMITED
BACARDI LIMITED Caroline Basyn has been named the drink company’s Global Chief Information Officer, responsible for all Information Technology activities of Bacardi Limited globally including leading the company’s overall IT strategy and implementation. Previously Basyn was at Procter & Gamble where she was most recently Director of Trade Fund Management... Read More
DON SEBASTIANI & SONS
DON SEBASTIANI & SONS The family-owned wine company has promoted Mike Cekay to Executive Vice President/Global Sales Manager. In his expanded role, Mike will assume day to day responsibility for all Export, Transportation and Travel Channels. Cekay joined Don Sebastiani & Sons in 2OO9 as Senior Vice President, National Sales... Read More
OBITUARY: JESS JACKSON,
JESS JACKSON, 81 An icon of the wine world has passed away. Jess Stonestreet Jackson, the man who revolutionized the Chardonnay industry in the US during the early 198Os with his extraordinarily successful Kendall-Jackson winery and went on to become a pioneering architect of the burgeoning American wine industry, passed... Read More
Pernod Ricard USA
The drinks company has appointed Steve Chasen as Director/On-Premise Trade Marketing and BJ Vorderer as Director/Off-Premise Trade Marketing. Chasen joins the company from Southern Wines & Spirits, New York, where he helped lead the PRUSA-dedicated team within SWS Metro NY. Prior to that, he served as Director/Sales & Marketing for... Read More
Brown-Forman
George Garvin Brown IV is being promoted to Executive Vice President of the Louisville-based spirits company. Brown’s new role is to lead planning on strategic and operational matters related to the board and the Brown family, which controls a majority of the company’s voting shares. In addition to his new... Read More
Anheuser-Busch InBev
August Busch IV is stepping down as a director at Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, ending the Busch family’s formal involvement in the brewing company that bears its name. He was the chief executive of Anheuser-Busch Cos. when the Budweiser maker was acquired by InBev in 2OO8. Busch, who had sought to... Read More
PERNOD RICARD USA
Ed Merklen has been named General Manager-East Division Sales. Prior to joining Pernod Ricard, Merklen worked for the past twelve years at the Coca-Cola Company where he held a series of executive sales roles in the bottling, divisional and national chain groups. In his most recent position as VP of... Read More