Heineken N.V. announced that James Thompson, Chief Commercial Officer, will leave HEINEKEN on 31 December 2023. After turning 60 earlier this year, James has decided now is the time to retire from full-time executive work. His last day as Chief Commercial Officer will be 31 August 2023, and he will stay on through the transition period as an advisor to the Executive Board until the end of the year.

Bram Westenbrink, will succeed James in the Executive Team as HEINEKEN’s new Chief Commercial Officer from 1 September 2023, reporting to Dolf van den Brink, HEINEKEN’s CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board. Bram Westenbrink has been with HEINEKEN since 2003 and has been Senior Director Global Heineken® and Amstel Brands since July 2020. Heineken® is a 55 million hectolitre brand and #1 global beer brand by value.

Under his leadership the Heineken® brand has grown 32%, with more than 50 markets growing double-digit in 2022. Heineken® 0.0 is now launched in more than 110 markets and Heineken® Silver more than doubled its volume in 2022 and will be rolled-out to 42 markets across Asia, Europe, and the Americas regions by the end of the year. Heineken® was recognised with 20 Cannes Lions awards this year and extended its sponsorship of Formula 1 until 2027.

At the same time there has been real velocity behind the Amstel brand which also grew volume double-digit in more than 15 markets. Between 2017 and 2020, Bram was Senior Marketing Director of HEINEKEN Brazil. He played an important role in the integration of the Kirin Brazil business and the success of the new company.

He developed a winning portfolio strategy, and built a high-performing marketing team, working hand in hand with Sales to successfully execute the new commercial strategy. Together with his team, he dramatically grew premium and accelerated Heineken®, making Brazil the No.1 Heineken® brand market delivering strong profit growth for the business. After joining the HEINEKEN Netherlands business as a trainee, he took his next assignment in Singapore as a business analyst, before returning to the Netherlands taking on a number of increasingly senior brand marketing roles.

He then moved into a senior sales role as Regional Director for On-trade and Wholesale, where he restructured the business by creating regional teams organised around customers resulting in significant improved performance. He was appointed as Marketing Director of HEINEKEN Hungary in 2010 and subsequently returned to HEINEKEN Netherlands as Marketing Director in 2013. Under his leadership he brought the main lager brands Heineken®, Amstel and Brand back to growth and significantly accelerated the innovation agenda.