Diageo has announced a reshuffle at executive committee level of the leads for its Africa and Europe divisions.
Hina Nagarajan, who was formerly CEO of Diageo’s United Spirits business in India, will become president of the group’s Africa division, which is currently headed by Dayalan Nayager. In turn, Nayager will take on the role of president of Diageo Europe, replacing John Kennedy who is set to leave the Johnnie Walker brand owner after 30 years.
The moves will take effect from the start of April.
Nagarajan’s first job at Diageo was as MD of ‘Africa Emerging Markets’ in 2018. Earlier this year, she was replaced in India by Praveen Someshwar after almost four years at the helm of the India unit, but remained on Diageo’s executive committee.
Nayager, meanwhile, has been president of Diageo Africa since July 2022 after joining the business nine years earlier. He will retain his current responsibilities as group chief commercial officer.
Nayager has been at the wheel for a raft of divestments in Africa by Diageo, including most recently the sale of its majority stake in Guinness Ghana Breweries to Castel Group in Africa for a fee of US$81m. The offload followed Diageo’s divestments of its stakes in Guinness Nigeria and Guinness Cameroon in 2024 and 2022, respectively, with the Guinness Cameroon holding also having been acquired by Castel.
Kennedy took over as an interim replacement for the Europe president role last year, after initially stepping away from Diageo in 2023. Today (26 February), details on where he is moving to were not immediately available.
Earlier this month, Diageo posted a 1% lift in six-month sales to the end of December, with the ‘Africa’ region posting a drop in sales to $944m for the period. However, ‘Europe’ saw a 0.7% rise in sales but volumes fell 2.8%.
