Catalyst Spirits, the maker of fast-growing Howler Head Bourbon, announced the appointment of Ed Bello as Global Senior Vice President of Marketing, reporting directly to CEO Simon Hunt. Ed was previously Head of Luxury for the North American division of global drinks leader Diageo.
Ed is a near 30-year veteran of the beverage and consumer packaged goods industry. As an executive at Diageo North America, he led the creation and development of their North American Luxury organization, including portfolio strategy; consumer segmentation; digital and e-commerce initiatives; innovation; route-to-market strategies; and its first U.S. Private Client business. Prior to this role, he served as the U.S. and Global Brand Director for Bulleit Frontier Whiskey for five years, guiding Bulleit to over 2MM 9L cases across 75+ countries, two new distilleries, a new visitor brand home and all-time high equity and share levels. Under his leadership, Bulleit went from the tenth to the fourth largest American Whiskey brand in the world.
Over his 15-year tenure at Diageo, he also held director-level marketing roles on Ketel One Vodka and Smirnoff Vodka. Prior to his experience in the spirits world, he spent 13 years at Procter & Gamble, with his most recent role leading the North American Folgers Coffee business. He held similar marketing positions on the Gillette Oral-B, Pringles and Millstone Ground Coffee brands, as well as in oral care and coffee innovation.
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“The global marketing leadership position is a critical role as we grow Howler Head internationally with our partner Campari Group, as well as build the overall Catalyst Spirits portfolio,” said Simon Hunt, CEO of Catalyst Spirits. “Ed brings an incomparable level of experience in the whiskey and global beverage space, including extensive consumer insight-driven marketing knowledge from Procter & Gamble. Matched that with his unparalleled experience on Bulleit Frontier Whiskey and Catalyst has acquired another seasoned industry veteran to help guide exponential future growth.”
In November, Catalyst announced the appointment of Heather Alper as Managing Director U.S. and Canada. Heather is a 25-year veteran of the U.S. spirits industry and was previously Regional Managing Director, U.S. and Canada for global premium drinks company William Grant & Sons, as well as holding executive roles at Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits/Glazer’s Distributors.
Catalyst Spirits is a new global spirits incubator company helmed by industry veteran Simon Hunt focused on leveraging the new economy and the company’s extensive experience to build and rapidly grow premium brands. Beyond Howler Head – the official flavored bourbon whiskey of UFC – the company’s spirits portfolio includes The Oceanus Hibernicus, a unique blend of Irish and Scotch malt whisk(e)y, as well as a number of other exciting brands in development.
The Catalyst Spirits team seeks scalable opportunities and leverages unique brand partners to create and develop impactful brands and bring them to market with pace, building them with exceptional marketing, retail, ecommerce and distributor support. Catalyst Spirits is a remote-work company with team members spread across North America and Europe.
SOURCE: PRWeb