Debra Crew couldn’t shift Diageo’s post-Covid hangover

<p>The firm still has the potential to be great again, but her long-term vision felt too blurry</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/16/diageo-ceo-debra-crew-steps-down-after-drink-firms-lacklustre-performance">Diageo CEO steps down after drink firm’s lacklustre performance</a></p></li></ul><p>Two years is no time at all to be the boss of a large FTSE 100 company, but the departure of Debra Crew from Diageo, the Guinness and Johnnie Walker group, has felt possible for at least half that period. Now she <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/16/diageo-ceo-debra-crew-steps-down-after-drink-firms-lacklustre-performance">has gone “by mutual agreement”</a>.</p><p>Crew’s first problem was that she followed a genuine corporate superstar in the form of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/07/diageo-chief-executive-ivan-menezes-dies-63-drinks-firm">the late Sir Ivan Menezes</a>, whose strategy of “premiumisation” – encouraging punters to drink more expensive stuff – did wonders for profit margins year after year. Any successor would have found it hard to match his record.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/jul/16/debra-crew-couldnt-shift-diageos-post-covid-hangover">Continue reading...</a>