Sally Grimes Hired as North America CEO of Diageo; Claudia Schubert Promoted

Sept. 25, 2023

Grimes was a top Tyson executive and was CEO of Clif Bar.

London-based spirits company Diageo Plc announced two top-level appointments last week: Sally Grimes, a former Tyson and Clif Bar executive, as CEO-North America, and Claudia Schubert as President & Chief Operating Officer for North America, both effective Oct. 1.

After serving as president of Tyson’s international business and chief global growth officer, Grimes was promoted in late 2018 to be Tyson’s Group President of the Prepared Foods segment. She ran a $10 billion, 25,000-person organization, reporting into the Global CEO. But it was a chaotic time at Tyson, and she left six months later.

Grimes surfaced in 2020 as CEO of Clif Bar & Co., where she led the development of a 10-year strategic growth plan, created a clear portfolio strategy and ultimately completed the sale of the company to Mondelez International. Earlier she worked at Kraft Foods.

Schubert is a current Diageo employee with more than 20 years of total beverage alcohol experience. Diageo says she has shaped and executed growth strategies in general management, commercial and marketing roles across North America, Europe and the Middle East and has been a board member of Distill Ventures. She’ll report to Grimes.

About the Author

Dave Fusaro | Editor in Chief

Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.