Bacardi Taps Former Kraft Heinz Exec to Bolster Marketing Leadership Team

April 12, 2024

Irina Rodina will become the spirits company’s senior vice president for marketing strategy and operations after spending two years leading Kraft Heinz’s northern European marketing.

Andy Hanacek

Spirits company Bacardi has hired former Kraft Heinz Northern European CMO Irina Rodina to be its senior vice president for marketing strategy and operations, according to a report in Marketing Week.

Rodina will drive strategic alignment and marketing transformation throughout the company, working at all levels from global down to local to help the growth of Bacardi’s stable of spirits brands. Rodina said in a LinkedIn post cited by Marketing Week that she looks to help marketers “do what they do best — create moments that matter.” She will report to global CMO Ned Duggan.

Rodina joined Kraft Heinz in 2022, supervising the “It has to be Heinz” platform, as well as innovation into pasta sauces — a move designed to take the brand beyond ketchup. Prior to her time with Kraft Heinz, Rodina had been global vice president of marketing for new business model innovations at Barilla. Previous to that role, she had spent nearly 20 years at Unilever.

About the Author

Andy Hanacek | Senior Editor

Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.