Diageo announced on June 7 that long-time CEO Ivan Menezes has died after a brief illness. Menezes, 63, held the CEO role at the spirits giant for 10 years, and was scheduled to retire at the end of this month.
The company had reported on June 5 that Menezes had been in the hospital receiving treatment for medical conditions including a stomach ulcer. His recovery suffered a significant setback due to complications, which followed emergency surgery on the ulcer.
As a result, Diageo’s board of directors named Debra Crew interim CEO, ahead of her planned appointment as CEO. The company in March announced that Crew would take over as CEO and join the board as an executive director on July 1, 2023, following Menezes’s retirement.
Ivan Manuel Menezes was born on July 10, 1959, in Pune, India, and held U.K. and U.S. citizenship, and Overseas Citizenship for India. He joined Diageo at its creation in 1997 through the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan and held many senior positions in a career spanning more than 25 years at the company.
Menezes had been an executive director of Diageo since July 2012, and served as CEO since July 2013, overseeing an outstanding period of change, growth and high performance. In January 2023, Ivan was awarded a Knighthood for services to Business and to Equality in His Majesty The King’s 2023 New Year Honours List. Menezes is survived by his wife, Shibani and his two children, Nikhil and Rohini.