British American Tobacco appoints Jack Bowles as CEO
British American Tobacco has promoted Jack Bowles, currently chief operating officer of its international business, to the role of chief executive, succeeding Nicandro Durante.
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Bowles will become chief executive designate on 1 November and join the board at the start of next year. He joined the company in 2004 as CEO of BAT France and later became managing director of the listed subsidiary in Malaysia.
Bowles was appointed to the management board in 2009 as regional director for Western Europe and subsequently served as regional director in both the Americas and Asia-Pacific before assuming his current role as COO last year.
Chairman Richard Burrows said: "Having conducted a far-reaching succession process with strong external and internal candidates, the board is delighted to appoint such an experienced and dynamic successor from within BAT. Throughout his career at BAT, Jack has demonstrated excellent strategic leadership; growing businesses, driving productivity improvements and building strong management teams. In his most recent roles, as director, Asia-Pacific and, as COO, he has played a key role in developing our potentially reduced risk products business.
"Jack's track record of innovating, and his experience across so many different geographies and areas of our business, position him extremely well to build on Nicandro's achievements and write the next chapter in BAT's history."
BAT announced last week that Durante was retiring after eight years as CEO and nearly 37 years with the company.
At 0855 BST, the shares were down 1.7% to 3,482.50p.