Brown-Forman has hired industry outsider Jim Peters as its next CFO, who will assume the position at the end of this month.
Peters joins the Jack Daniel’s and Diplomatico Rum owner from US home-appliance business Whirlpool, where he was chief financial & administrative officer, a post he took up in 2016. He joined Whirlpool in an unspecified role in 2004, and worked up to become CFO of the company’s EMEA region in 2008, then of its North American region and finally to group CFO.
He succeeds Leanne Cunningham, who will retire on 1 May. Cunningham announced her retirement last August, having spent 30 years with Brown-Forman and having served as CFO since mid-2021.
“I am honoured to join Brown‑Forman, a company with such a rich heritage and iconic portfolio of brands,” Peters said. “I look forward to working with [CEO] Lawson [Whiting] and the entire team to build upon the company’s strong foundation and to continue delivering sustainable value for our shareholders and stakeholders worldwide.”
In the three months to the end of January – Brown-Forman’s fiscal Q3 – group sales rose by 1% to US$1.06bn. For the first nine months of fiscal 2026, however, sales were flat versus the corresponding period a year earlier.
