Member of Diageo’s European M&A team, managing international brand disposals.

I managed the joint venture between a European Diageo subsidiary and Corporación Cuba Ron S.A. for the global commercialization of Ron Santiago de Cuba, widely regarded as one of the highest quality rums in Cuba. My responsibilities included overseeing the local market, supporting global business growth, and managing relationships with Cuban stakeholders.I led this project through every phase: identifying the ideal Cuban rum brand, negotiating all aspects of the partnership, and establishing the joint venture from the ground up in Cuba.One of our biggest local achievements: over the last two years, following the impact of COVID, our local team revitalized a brand with great product quality but an outdated reputation, transforming Ron Santiago de Cuba into the country's premium rum brand. We elevated its appeal, making it aspirational for Cuban consumers to proudly enjoy premium rum in top-tier bars across the island. In the process, we increased the company’s gross margin from below 20% to over 70%.Operating in an embargoed country with a complex economic and regulatory landscape, we built a company with a distinctive culture of flexibility, resilience, and a mindset geared towards continuously reinventing processes to capitalize on commercial opportunities.

Responsible for all Diageo operations in Cuba, from managing the local distributor to negotiating business development opportunities with the Cuban government.As Diageo's first-ever country manager in this market, I navigated a government-controlled, complex environment to transform the local distributor’s mindset from ‘trading’ to ‘high-growth.’ I established customer and trade marketing structures, expanded the field team, and implemented detailed commercial reporting. In just two years, we doubled sales and surpassed the key competitor, positioning Johnnie Walker as the most aspirational brand for Cuban consumers.Simultaneously, I built a robust network within the local rum industry, conducted a market analysis to identify a brand with global growth potential, and successfully led the negotiations between Diageo and Cuban stakeholders to establish a joint venture.

Head of Strategy for Diageo Andean, leading strategic projects across Colombia and Venezuela. My most significant initiative was developing a sustainability strategy for Diageo Venezuela to navigate the challenging economic landscape, particularly the scarcity of foreign currency. The solution encompassed capital investment projects and business development negotiations, ensuring long-term resilience and adaptability in a volatile market.

Lexia Consulting is a strategy consulting firm focusing on pricing strategy, trading terms, and promotional effectiveness. I co-developed a methodology to accurately report profitability at both outlet and SKU levels, enabling granular analysis of promotional effectiveness and allowing informed managerial decisions on pricing and promotional strategies. We successfully implemented these processes and tools across multinational companies in Australia, Thailand, and China.In Australia, I redesigned commercial investment processes for a leading FMCG company, optimising investment strategy and operations to unlock USD 15M in potential value.

Founder of a boutique consultancy specialising in strategy and new business development.As a consultant, I led organisational redesign projects in Asia and Africa, and in Italy, I advised financial institutions on payment directives while contributing to a project for a multi-functional social card.In business development, I successfully launched a premium chain of Italian ice cream parlors in Spain.

Senior member of Diageo's Strategy and Business Development team. I specialised in commercial finance projects, including the analysis of trading terms and price harmonisation across Central America, while also developing market-transformative growth strategies for Latin American markets.

The role required devising the most effective team to nurture new products and brands in the highly fragmented Spain HORECA market. The team I created was made of 6 activation managers across Spain, who were responsible to build their local network, present list, sell, and activate the brand, as well as obtaining feedback information on new consumer trends.During its first twelve months the team launched ten new brands, achieving sales of EUR 9M - and approaching break even with profits from alternative business opportunities. We developed alternative routes-to-consumer and commercialisation techniques for Diageo Iberia, enabling the company to capitalize on emerging consumer trends and pilot product launches in controlled environments.

In-house strategist, managing projects for both Diageo’s executive board and in-market companies. Initially working on growth opportunities in Europe, I later specialised in assessing and negotiating Diageo’s partnerships and joint ventures in Asia and Latin America.

Starting as a junior consultant, I grew to lead teams of 2-4 people in analysis-to-implementation projects both in pure risk management and in strategy and process redesign, in Mexico, the UK, Italy, and Spain.My expertise resided in developing and implementing credit risk frameworks: the assignments encompassed all steps from analysing customer behaviour for modelling expected default frequencies, to developing user-friendly approval tools (Access VBA or Intranet) for loan managers.

As an assistant rotating across departments, I managed various small projects in marketing and commercial finance.During a 9-month assignment in Cuba with the Suchel-Lever joint venture, I became the first to take responsibility for the company’s marketing activities on the island, overseeing in-store execution and managing relationships with state-controlled retailers.