Hernán Tabah Beam Suntory

Tabah joins Beam Suntory from tobacco giant Altria

Jim Beam owner Beam Suntory has announced the appointment of Hernán Tabah as its first-ever chief digital and technology officer.

Tabah will report directly into the US-headquartered spirits company’s president and CEO, and will serve on its executive leadership team.

He would be responsible for “accelerating Beam Suntory’s enterprise digital, data and end-to-end technology strategy”, the company said.

Tabah joins Beam Suntory from tobacco giant Altria, where he acted as its chief digital and technology officer. Prior to this he has held several senior digital and information technology roles at Mondelez and spent more than a decade at British American Tobacco in various IT and digital marketing roles.

An Argentinian native, Tabah graduated from the IAE Business School Buenos Aires with an MBA. He also holds a BS in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Argentina.

Greg Hughes, Beam Suntory’s incoming CEO, said digital transformation was “one of the key enablers” for the firm to achieve its future goals and become “the world’s most admired premium spirits company”.

“With nearly 25 years’ experience leading digital and technology transformations at global consumer goods companies, Hernán is the perfect fit as we bring together our IT, digital strategy, delivery and experience teams under one leader,” he added.

Tabah himself added: “This is an exciting moment to be joining Beam Suntory as the company seeks to truly harness the power of digital and advanced analytics to accelerate transformation and leverage technologies to impact core business processes.”

In July, Beam Suntory announced its CEO Albert Baladi was to stand down, effective October 2023. Baladi will depart Beam Suntory next month after a 12-year career at the Maker’s Mark brand owner, including five years as its CEO.