Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits has announced two appointments for its national Supplier Development & Marketing (SDM) organization.
Effective October 1, 2021, Mark Chaplin has been promoted to the role of Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, reporting directly to Gene Sullivan, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. In addition to his current responsibilities, Chaplin will now assume the leadership role of Southern Glazer’s corporate supplier management team, which currently serves as national brand managers for key strategic suppliers.
In his leadership role, this supplier-centric team will be responsible for driving growth by collaborating directly with both strategic suppliers and Southern Glazer’s regional, state, national accounts and functional support teams.
Also effective October 1, 2021, Zachary Poelma has been promoted to the role of Senior Vice President, Supplier Strategy, reporting directly to Sullivan.
In his expanded role, Poelma will work hand-in-hand with Chaplin on embedding a supplier-centric approach across a team of professionals including Supplier Strategy, Insights and other supplier support functions.
“I am very excited to have Mark Chaplin assume the additional responsibility of leading our newly enhanced Supplier Development & Marketing organization,” says Gene Sullivan, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. “Mark is a proven leader with a collaborative approach and has delivered strong results while driving change in each of his prior roles. He brings a supplier-centric mindset and in-depth knowledge of how to drive effective sales growth for Southern Glazer’s supplier partners.”
Sullivan adds, “Zach Poelma has a strong track record of success at Southern Glazer’s while working in a number of strategy and analytical roles. Enhancing the value for both our supplier partners and internal teams is something Zach has consistently delivered on and will be critical for this new role.”
Chaplin most recently held the role of Vice President, Sales and Marketing. In this role, Chaplin worked directly with Sullivan to support sales execution excellence and interacted closely with strategic supplier and customer partners. Prior to that appointment, he was the Director of Sales and Commercial Operations for the East Region, where he contributed to several key strategic initiatives including East Region Forecast and Planning management, route-to-market restructuring, and program management.
Chaplin’s work experience prior to Southern Glazer’s includes positions with Gallo Sales Company, Merrill Lynch, Grant Thornton, and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. He earned his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Miami. He is also a graduate of the Southern Glazer’s Exceptional Leaders Program (ELP).
“The new SDM team will be focused on over-delivering on enhanced value creation, supporting our strategic supplier partners,” says Chaplin. “The wine and spirits marketplace has evolved significantly over the past five years since we created our Supplier Management Business Development (SMBD) function during the SGWS merger. Since that time, Southern Glazer’s has made significant investments in our go-to-market strategy, and now is the right time to align this corporate function to reflect those changes. We need to ensure we are growing our supplier management teams to best position our suppliers for success in this new landscape, leveraging our industry-leading insights and Supplier 360 Planning processes.”
Poelma has served in multiple strategy and analytics roles of increasing responsibility since joining Southern Glazer’s in 2011. He most recently held the role of Senior Vice President, Supplier Strategy & Business Development, where he has overseen the Supplier Insights and Strategy teams, while also leading supplier expansion initiatives and collaborating with regional and state teams.
In addition to his time at Southern Glazer’s, Poelma has also worked in corporate and financial roles for Procter & Gamble, Dannon, and UBS. He earned a Bachelor of Science from The United States Naval Academy and received an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business. He is also a graduate of Southern Glazer’s Preeminent Leadership Program, in partnership with the Harvard Business School of Executive Education.
“I look forward to working side-by-side with Mark in his new role,” says Poelma. “Through the efforts of our expanded teams, we’ll accomplish our supplier partners’ goals by driving greater accountability, as well as more robust sales effectiveness, utilizing the SG Proof digital platform, which provides industry-leading analytics and insights.”
