British American Tobacco shuffles board for new CEO

British American Tobacco announced details of a management board re-shuffle on Friday, including two new roles, in a bid to accelerate the implementation of its strategy.

The FTSE 100 cigarette giant said the first new role, director of new categories, would report directly to the chief marketing officer and have end-to-end accountability for driving growth, innovation, brand building and consumer insights for its ‘potentially reduced-risk products’ (PRRPs).

It said the other new role, dubbed director of digital and information, would report directly to the chief executive officer and would be responsible for “driving digital transformation” across the group, and further enhancing its digital consumer experience capabilities.

The board said the changes would take effect from 1 January.

In addition, the roles of chief operating officer and group business development director would cease to exist, and all four regions - the US, Europe and North Africa, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa - would report directly to the CEO.

BAT said that in light of the changes, a number of appointments and other shuffles would be made.

Paul Lageweg would be appointed as director of new categories, moving from his current role of regional marketing manager for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Lageweg had been with the group for 13 years in a number of senior roles, including area director of East Asia, and global head of marketing futures.

Before that, he held senior marketing roles at Unilever and Kimberly-Clark.

Marina Bellini would be appointed as director of digital and information, shifting from her current position as chief information officer.

Bellini joined BAT in 2018, having previously served as global chief information officer and global business services senior vice-president at Anheuser-Busch InBev, where she was responsible for its “information technology transformation”, including consumer digital marketing.

Tadeu Marocco, currently regional director of Europe and North Africa, would be appointed to a new management board role - director of group transformation - from 1 January.

That role would work closely with the new chief executive officer in what the board called a “key phase” of BAT’s transformation, to simplify its structure and processes.

Johan Vandermeulen, currently regional director of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, would succeed Marocco as regional director of Europe and North Africa, from 1 January.

Guy Meldrum would be appointed to succeed Vandermeulen as regional director of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East from 1 January.

Meldrum, currently area director for the Australasia area, had worked for BAT for 26 years, previously holding a number of senior roles in the group including area director for the North Asia area, and marketing director for Russia

Hae In Kim would be appointed as director of talent and culture-designate on 1 January, and would succeed Giovanni Giordano, currently group human resources director, on 1 April.

She was currently group head of talent and organisational effectiveness, and previously held several other senior human resources roles, including regional HR director for Asia-Pacific, and HR director for Japan and North Asia.

Before that, she had experience in Samsung, IBM Consulting Services and PwC.

Finally, Naresh Sethi - currently group business development director - would leave the company at the end of the second quarter of 2019, having handed over responsibility for IT at the board level to Marina Bellini, and for global business services and his other areas of responsibility to Tadeu Marocco.

Sethi had a “highly successful” 18-year career at BAT in marketing, general management and as regional director of its former Western European region.

“We have an established and successful strategy to transform our business and the new roles we are announcing today will enable us to execute this strategy better and faster,” said chief executive officer Nicandro Durante.

“Naresh and Giovanni have been instrumental in the success of our transformation to date and I would like to thank them both for their leadership and significant contributions to the group and wish them all the best for the future.”

CEO-designate Jack Bowles added that it was an “exciting time” for BAT, explaining it was “important” that the skill set and focus of the management board evolved to reflect the environment the firm was operating in.

“The diversity, expertise and experience that Paul, Marina, Hae In and Guy will bring, together with the depth of experience of the existing management board, will be key to enable us to accelerate the transformation of our business and capitalise on the great opportunities that lie ahead of us.”