No- & low-alcohol start-up Dionilife has hired four executives and promoted a fifth internally to “complete” its leadership team.
The appointments span sales, marketing & innovation and include previous employees of Anheuser-Busch, Diageo, Moët Hennessy and Danone. The new team members have joined the company over the last 13 months, but their arrivals were officially announced last week.
In August, Anna Bauer (above) joined Dionilife as US marketing director following 18 years at LVMH, the parent group of Moët Hennessy. She began her time with the group in 2007 as a business development innovation manager in Chicago before working up to national director of field & trade marketing for Moët Hennessy’s wine portfolio.
Also new in the Mash Gang owner’s marketing department is Jo Taylor (below), who joined ten months ago as global marketing director. Taylor was previously marketing director at plant-based food & drink producer BOL Foods. She was a brand manager at Danone from 2003 to 2005 and worked at UK smoothie company Innocent Drinks for ten years to 2015.
In January last year, Stoli Group veteran Samantha Wilson (below) joined Dionilife as its MD for the UK & Europe. She joined the Stoli vodka brand owner in 2023 as global commercial effectiveness director and was promoted to global commercial strategy president in 2024.
Wilson previously spent 19 years at Diageo, joining as a senior national account manager in 2003 and working up to country manager for Ron Santiago de Cuba, launching the rum in the UK.
Dionilife was founded by ex-Stoli Group CEO Damian McKinney and Diageo’s former innovation director, Steve Wilson, in 2024. McKinney and Samantha Wilson’s roles at Stoli Group crossed over for around five months before the former left in July 2023. Samantha’s time at Diageo also coincided with Steve Wilson’s.
Chris Kaiser also joins Dionilife as US commercial leader following an unspecified period at Anheuser-Busch, where he was responsible for “on-premise sales and chains sales across the US”. Kaiser also directed marketing for Bud Light and sales for Beyond Beer during his employment by the US unit of AB InBev.
Finally, last month, Flora McKinney was promoted from technical innovation lead to global head of liquid, innovation & quality. She joined Dionilife in 2024 following four years at UK energy provider EDF, latterly as a nuclear reactor operator.
“This group has a strategic breadth, operational depth and most importantly, a leadership mindset, along with a passion for the limitless potential of non-alcoholic beverages,” said CEO Damian McKinney. “The pendulum has swung, with consumers now fully recognising the benefits of including non-alcohol beverages in their lives, whether it be exclusively or periodically.”
Dionilife commenced trading with one brand, an alcohol-free beer, Mash Gang, and expanded its range with a no-alcohol agave-based spirit and ‘Mediterranean aperitif’ last year.
