Diageo sees another senior exit

Ravi Rajagopal, Diageo’s global head of business development, is leaving the company at the end of September – the third executive level departure to be announced in the last month.

Rajagopal will be replaced by Vinay Tanna, the company’s global business director (Photo: Diageo)

Diageo chose not to expand on the reasons behind Rajagopal’s depature, saying only that he is pursuing “new interests”.

Rajagopal joined the business 19 years ago, and also sits on the board of Diageo’s Indian acquisition United Spirits as a non-executive director.

He is the third high-level figure in Diageo to leave the company in the past month, following separate announcements in June detailing the departures of North America president Larry Schwartz and Tim Salt, Diageo’s Australia director.

It was recently revealed that Schwartz is being replaced by current Diageo chief financial officer Dierdre Mahon, and earlier this week Salt’s replacement was named as David Smith, currently Diageo Ireland director.

Rajagopal will be replaced by Vinay Tanna, the company’s global business director. Tanna, who has been in the business since 2000, will report to Anna Manz, group strategy director.

“Vinay has worked on many of Diageo’s significant M&A transactions, including recently leading the USL acquisition”, a Diageo spokesperson said.