Diageo CEO steps down following stock slump

Debra Crew's tenure has been punctuated by setbacks including a drop in sales on cooling demand in China and the US

Debra Crew pictured with then Taoiseach Simon Harris last year at the announcement of Diageo plans to invest over €100m to decarbonise its historic St James’s Gate site in Dublin 8 Pic: Naoise Culhane

Diageo Chief Executive Officer Debra Crew stepped down after a bruising run in which the company’s stock has plummeted.

The maker of Guinness and Johnnie Walker whisky said Wednesday Chief Financial Officer Nik Jhangiani had been appointed interim CEO, with a search already underway for Crew’s permanent replacement.

Shares of Diageo rose as much as 4.4%, the most since April. The stock had slumped 43% through Tuesday’s close since Crew took over in June 2023.

Her tenure has been punctuated by setbacks including a drop in sales on cooling demand in China and the US, and a profit warning after being caught out by piles of unsold inventory in Mexico and Brazil.

The company was forced to scrap its long-held medium-term sales target in February as a result of higher trade friction denting consumer confidence. Then in May, Diageo said it would cut costs by $500m (€427.7m) over three years across its supply chain, advertising and promotions and its operating model. The company has also been pursuing asset disposals.

Crew, 54, a former boss of tobacco company Reynolds American, was promoted to the top job at Diageo a month early after the death of predecessor Ivan Menezes. She served in the US military before beginning a career in the consumer goods industry, working at PepsiCo, Nestle and Mars.

But she took the Diageo helm at a time when pushing drinkers toward more expensive spirits had become harder due to a post-pandemic cost-of-living crisis. More recently, US President Donald Trump’s tariff war has made operational challenges even tougher.

Bloomberg