A Diageo man to head Carlsberg UK

As of 1 March 2012 Carlsberg has appointed Benet Slay, formerly Managing Director Northern Europe for Diageo, as its new CEO for Carlsberg UK.

He follows Jesper Friis, Senior Vice President for Carlsberg Western Europe, who has been acting as interim CEO since 1 December 2011, when Carlsberg played musical chairs and sent its UK chief Isaac Sheps over to Russia as CEO of Baltika Breweries, having “promoted” Baltika’s luckless boss Anton Artemiev to Baltika’s supervisory board.

Mr Slay is the kind of FMCG expert very much en vogue with Carlsberg, having worked for PepsiCo between 1991 and 2004, mostly with Walkers Snack Foods, before joining Diageo in 2004.

He had fallen victim to Diageo’s far-reaching management restructuring announced in May last year when his role was cut to allow Diageo to focus on its business in emerging markets.