Bacardi Scraps Global CMO Role

Bacardi Limited, one of the largest privately held spirits company in the world, has made a major rejig to its marketing team.

The organizational changes, announced, will result in the departure of Dima Ivanov, who had served as global CMO since January. Mauricio Vergara has been named CMO for North America, where his duties will also include global oversight for the Bacardi and Grey Goose brands. Mr. Vergara has been at Bacardi since 2013, holding a variety of regional and global marketing and sales roles.

Shane Hoyne, will take over as CMO for Europe and will also assume global lead duties for Martini, Dewar’s, William Lawson’s and Bombay. He was previously at William Grant & Sons where he was global brands director on Grant’s Whisky, Drambuie and Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey.

Bacardi CEO Mike Dolan said in an interview that he offered Mr. Ivanov another position at Bacardi that he described as a “great job.” But Mr. Ivanov decided to pursue outside opportunities, he said.


Bacardi has also created a new position called head of creative excellence that will be filled by Zara Mirza, whose duties will include overseeing global agency relationships. Ms. Mirza was a partner at BBH before joining Bacardi last year.

The structural changes come two months after Bacardi consolidated global agency duties with Omnicom group, giving creative to BBDO Worldwide and media to OMD Worldwide.