Bacardi Appoints First Female Boss To Run Its Global Travel Retail Business

Bacardi Appoints First Female Boss To Run Its Global Travel Retail Business

All change for Bacardi as its travel retail business gets its first female leader from January. Global spirits company Bacardi—best known for its white rum—is having a reshuffle across some of its leadership roles and among the changes will be the appointment of the first woman to lead the company's travel retail business as global managing director. Leila Stansfield, currently the on-trade sales director for Bacardi UK & Ireland, will take on the new role from January 2023. The incumbent, London-based Vinay Golikeri, is moving out of travel retail, after more than a decade in the channel, to take on the position of managing director for India and neighboring countries. Golikeri replaces Sanjit Singh Randhawa who will be moving to Dubai to become director of external affairs for Asia Middle East & Africa and global travel retail. India and the United States are the two largest global markets for whisky—a focus category for Bacardi. In India, the spirit will see volume growth of 23% between 2021 and 2026 according to drinks analyst IWSR. University of Cambridge-educated Stansfield has previous—though short-lived—experience of the travel retail channel having held high-level roles such as finance director (from 2015 to 2016) and marketing director