Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Reynolds hires PepsiCo exec as next president

Reynolds American Inc, the manufacturer of Winston Classic cigarettes. has raised the diversity level on its executive leadership team again with the hiring of Debra Crew as president of subsidiary R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., effective Oct. 1.

Crew currently serves as president and general manager of PepsiCo North America Nutrition, a job she had been appointed to earlier this year. She also has served as president of PepsiCo Americas Beverage and of the Western Europe region of PepsiCo Europe.

The company said Friday that Andrew Gilchrist, president and chief commercial officer of R.J. Reynolds, will become an executive vice president with the parent company, also on Oct.

1. The company said Gilchrist's future role on the 12-member leadership team will be announced at a later date.

Crew will make $620,000 a year, according to a Reynolds regulatory filing Friday. She will get a signing bonus of $525,000 after Jan. 1. She will be eligible for an annual incentive plan payment estimated at $162,750. She has been made eligible for a long-term incentive grant of $1.5 million, vesting March 3, 2017.

Another part of Reynolds' incentive to Crew is agreeing to make her eligible for up to $6.7 million in restricted Reynolds stock units, some of which become fully vested Sept. 30, 2016, and the others Sept. 30, 2018. The restricted stock units are offered "to offset forfeiture of equity incentive grants at your previous employer."

Reynolds has a history of placing female executives into the R.J. Reynolds president role.

Lynn Beasley retired from the post after five years in January 2007 at age 49. Beasley was the highest-ranking officer left from the R.J. Reynolds team thatbought Brown & Williamson Corp. in 2004 to create Reynolds American.

Susan Cameron, Reynolds American's president and chief executive, said in a statement Crew's experience with some of America's best-known consumer brands "is extraordinary."

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