Heineken has released details of an internal appointment for its next global duty free manager.
Previous incumbent Niek Vonk, who had led the group’s global travel retail operations since December 2019, has headed to Miami to become the CEO of Heineken’s Cerveceria La Tropical brewery and beer brand. Replacing him is Natalia Kuldyaeva (below), who heads to the Amsterdam headquarters from Italy, where she had been transformation manager for the past two years.
The switch appears to have taken effect in July, although confirmation was announced this week.
Kuldyaeva started her career with Heineken in Russia in 2003. The majority of her 22 years with the group has been spent in the country, where she rose to the position of head of export markets in late 2020. At the start of 2023, she moved to Italy to take up her most recent post.
Vonk, meanwhile, continues his 20-year stint with Heineken at La Tropical. The company, initially founded in Cuba in 1888, relocated 65 years ago to Florida, where it had held an arrangement with a brewery in Tampa around the start of the 20th Century. The move to the US was prompted by the Cuban Revolution in 1959.
Heineken acquired majority control in 2017, with Vonk replacing La Tropical’s previous outright owner and now minority stakeholder – Manny Portuondo.
Earlier this month, Heineken prepared for the departure of its Americas president, Marc Busain, who will be moving on at the start of October.
