Dive Brief:
- Spirits maker Diageo named WPP CFO Joanne Wilson to be its next finance chief, announcing a plan for her to replace Nik Jhangiani “some time in 2027,” according to a Wednesday press release.
- Jhangiani, who joined the owner of the Smirnoff, Guinness and Johnny Walker brands in 2024 as CFO, also served as interim CEO from July to December of last year. The company has undergone a series of leadership changes in the wake of the 2023 death of long-time CEO Ivan Menezes following a brief illness.
- Sir Dave Lewis, the liquor giant’s CEO since January, cited Wilson’s CFO experience with companies undergoing change in a statement in the release, calling her a “very experienced CFO and commercial leader who will ensure we accelerate the turnaround of Diageo, having already delivered extensive transformations in her previous companies.”
Dive Insight:
The London-based company’s C-suite is orchestrating a turnaround focused on North America as it grapples with cost-conscious consumers and changing attitudes towards liquor consumption which have led some customers to moderate their drinking, according to a slidedeck from Diageo’s Aug. 8 analyst investor day.
For the fiscal year 2026 ended June 30, Diageo said its net profit fell 22.9% to $1.9 billion from the year earlier period as the company took $900 million in restructuring charges. It also expects to realize $850 million in savings over a two-year period starting in fiscal 2027, according to preliminary results released in August.
“We're really clear that we have a turnaround to execute in North America, but we need to do that whilst we continue to accelerate the growth elsewhere in the world,” Lewis told analysts in August, according to a transcript of Diageo’s investor day remarks.
In Wilson, the company gets a finance chief who is familiar with cost-cutting. At the advertising agency WPP, Wilson is managing restructuring costs and selling assets as it executes a cost-savings initiative, according to a Q2 earnings call transcript. WPP is grappling with revenue declines and client losses as it seeks to pull off its own turnaround, Bloomberg reported in August.
Prior to WPP, which she joined in April 2023, Wilson worked in senior roles at the drinks company Britvic and held senior finance roles at the grocer Tesco, according to her LinkedIn profile. Wilson, a chartered accountant who also previously worked at KPMG, currently serves as a non-executive director at Informa, CFO Dive’s parent company.
