SGWS Announces Commercial Leadership Promotions

Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits has announced several promotions on its commercial team, all effective January 1, 2020.

This Commercial leadership announcement concerns three reports for John Wittig’s forthcoming role as Chief Commercial Officer.

“We are pleased to name two successors for Scott Oppenheimer’s prior role of Regional President for the Control States and Canada — which has been divided into two roles, one for Control states and one for Canada — as well as the new role of Senior Vice President, Commercial Transformation & Digital Strategy,” says Wittig.

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“We are also excited to establish the new role of Vice President, Family-Owned Brands—that will be reporting to Executive Vice President, Supplier Management & Business Development Ray Lombard,” adds Gene Sullivan, who will assume the role of Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, effective January 1, 2020.

Executive Vice President and General Manager, Control States Patrick Pokorny

In this new role, Pokorny will lead the beverage alcohol Control States — Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Montgomery County in Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

He will report directly to Wittig, who, as previously announced, will be assuming the role of Chief Commercial Officer, also on January 1, 2020.

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Pokorny currently holds the role of Executive Vice President and General Manager of Pennsylvania, which he has held since 2018. In that role, he is responsible for the company’s performance in Pennsylvania.

Prior to joining Southern Glazer’s, Pokorny held numerous leadership roles throughout a long career in the beverage alcohol industry, including serving as Vice President, Control States and Military for Moët Hennessy USA. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Frostburg State University.

An announcement regarding the future leadership of Pennsylvania will be forthcoming.

President, Canada Doug Wieland

In his new role as President, Canada, Wieland will lead Canada and also report directly to Wittig.

Wieland currently holds the role of Senior Vice President, General Manager of Canada. He has over 30 years of experience in the beverage alcohol industry. He started his career with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Since that time, he has led multiple teams across sales and marketing functions throughout Canada. He also spent five years as Vice President, Sales with Select Wines and Spirits.

Wieland joined Glazer’s in 2015 as Vice President, Sales and Marketing. In addition to reporting to Wittig, Wieland will work directly with Sullivan with regard to Southern Glazer’s Sales and Marketing efforts.

Senior Vice President, Commercial Transformation & Digital Strategy Nicole Bierig Jordan

In her new role, Jordan will be responsible for identifying opportunities for profitable growth within Southern Glazer’s commercial business units and ensuring the execution of key commercial transformation initiatives. She will report directly to Wittig.

Jordan brings over 10 years of experience in commercial strategy, analytics and transformation to Southern Glazer’s leadership team. In her most recent position, she served as Senior Vice President, Growth & Strategy on the Company’s Transformation Team. Prior to that role, she served as Vice President, Commercial Strategy, West Region, while also leading Commercial Analytics for SGWS corporately.

Jordan earned her bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and is a graduate of the Southern Glazer’s Exceptional Leaders Program (ELP).

Vice President, Family-Owned Brands Jennifer Chaplin Tolkin

In her new role, Tolkin will oversee supplier relations with family-owned brands. She will be responsible for integrating suppliers of family-owned brands with SGWS’s consumer, trade and SG Proof platforms. She will continue to report directly to Executive Vice President, Supplier Management & Business Development (SMBD) Ray Lombard, who, in turn, will report to Sullivan.

“As a family company, Southern Glazer’s values our relationships with family-owned brands. With Jennifer’s supplier relations credentials and as a member of the Chaplin family, she is a natural fit for this new role,” says Sullivan.

Most recently, she held the role of Director, Supplier Management & Business Development, where she supported nationally aligned suppliers and strategic projects. Prior to that, she was Communications and Events Manager in the Communications & Corporate Social Responsibility Department, working alongside the events team supporting corporate events, as well as the Southern Glazer’s social media team. Prior to joining Southern Glazer’s, Sullivan worked at William Morris Endeavor (WME), a leading global entertainment agency. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Tisch School of Arts at New York University.

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