MillerCoors Board of Directors Names Gavin Hattersley CEO

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MillerCoors’ board of directors today named interim CEO Gavin Hattersley as its permanent leader.

Hattersley — who came to the SABMIller/Molson Coors joint venture in July, following former CEO Tom Long’s departure from the company — had been serving as both the chief of MillerCoors and the chief financial officer of Molson Coors. He will continue to serve as Molson Coors’ CFO until a replacement is named in mid-November, the company said in a statement.

“Gavin is the right person to lead MillerCoors forward,” Pete Coors, chairman of the MillerCoors board of directors said in the statement. “Gavin has a great handle on what needs to be done to achieve growth at MillerCoors and he has the complete confidence of the Board, the employees and the distributor network to achieve this aspiration.”

On his first day in charge, Hattersley terminated two top MillerCoors executives — chief marketing officer Andy England and Ed McBrien, who had served as the president of sales and distributor operations. In their place, Hattersley named David Kroll – who joined MillerCoors in 2012 as the vice president of innovation and was responsible for the introduction of products like Redd’s Apple Ale and Smith & Forge Hard Cider — as the company’s new CMO. Kevin Doyle, who had been serving as the MillerCoors’ chief commercial solutions officer, replaced Ed McBrien as president of sales and distributor operations.

“In his few short months as interim leader, he has quickly taken action across a number of areas,” Alan Clark, chief executive of SABMiller said in the release. “He has shown a deep understanding of the strategic issues facing the business and the need to prioritize returning MillerCoors to total volume growth in the years ahead.”

“Gavin combines his business knowledge with a healthy dose of impatience that’s needed at MillerCoors,” added Mark Hunter, CEO of Molson Coors. “MillerCoors has a tremendous portfolio of brands and they deserve a leader who will be able to focus all of his energy and efforts against growing the business.”

Hattersley’s appointment is effective immediately, the company said. He follows Tom Long and Leo Kiely as the previous two CEOs of the MillerCoors joint venture.

“I am humbled and honored to lead MillerCoors forward,” Hattersley said in the statement. “The passion and energy that our employees and distributors have for growing this business is awesome. We have a lot of work to do to meet our ambitious goals, but we have the people, brands and firepower to do it. My job is to galvanize and focus our collective efforts and inspire the company to take smart risks, execute the right ideas and, ultimately, grow our total volume and shareholder value.”