Bacardi Ltd. Announces CEO Transition, Chairman Plans
HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2005--The Board of Directors of Bacardi Limited announced today Ruben Rodriguez, current chairman of the board, will remain as chairman after the company's forthcoming annual general meeting of shareholders in June and throughout a transitional period with newly named president and chief executive officer, Andreas Gembler.
The board also approved a succession plan for the company's chairman upon completion of this transitional period. Mr. Rodriguez will retire as chairman, but remain an active member of the board of directors. The board has also indicated it intends to elect Facundo L. Bacardi, currently deputy chairman, and a former vice chairman, as its new chairman. This would be the ninth chairman in the history of the 143 year old company.
Mr. Bacardi, 38, is the great-great grandson of the company founder, Don Facundo Bacardi Masso, who created the company in 1862 in Santiago de Cuba. He has held the position of deputy chairman of the board for the past year and has been a director of Bacardi Limited since 1993.
Mr. Bacardi is founder and president of BacardiWorks LLC, a private equity and real estate investment company in Miami. He received his B.S.B.A. in finance from American University in Washington, D.C. and a J.D. degree from Emory University Law School in Atlanta.
Bacardi Limited is the largest privately held spirits company in the world and produces and markets a variety of internationally recognized spirits. Bacardi Limited's brand portfolio consists of more than 250 brands and labels, including: BACARDI rum, the world's number-one selling rum; MARTINI & ROSSI vermouth, the world leader in vermouth; GREY GOOSE vodka, the world leader in ultra premium vodka; DEWAR'S scotch whisky, the number-one selling blended scotch whisky in the United States; BOMBAY SAPPHIRE gin, one of the fastest-growing brands in the spirits industry; CAZADORES blue agave tequila, the top selling 100 percent blue agave tequila worldwide; and other leading brands.
Amy Federman,
305-347-4343
or
Patricia Neal,
305-446-9050