Rich Andrews promoted into Bacardi USA role

Derek Hopkins, SVP, national sales director for Bacardi USA, has announced he will be leaving the company, but has agreed to help with a transition. During Derek’s three-year tenure with Bacardi, he designed key initiatives that strengthened the sales organisation and activities. Among them, he organised a commercial structure and introduced channel-focused teams.

Stepping in to run the commercial organisation as VP commercial for North America will be Rich Andrews (pictured). Rich will lead the commercial and customer marketing activities across the US and Canada and will begin his new role in September.

Rich has been with Bacardi for more than 10 years in country, regional and global roles. He began his career with Bacardi as VP of sales for Canada and was later promoted to president of Canada. He returned to the commercial side as interim regional president of Latin America and was responsible for the general management of that diverse business. For the past two years, Rich has served as the business unit managing director for the Bacardi business in the UK and Ireland where he developed a strategy and execution plan focused on expanding the premium business.

26 August 2014 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor