AB InBev plans to replace its veteran chief financial and technology officer Felipe Dutra after more than 20 years, according to a report by the Financial Times. He is considered a faithful companion of AB Inbev CEO Carlos Brito, who, like him, was born in Brazil and has been managing the company's fortunes in corresponding roles since its early beginning in 1999 when the two Brazilian breweries Brahma and Antarctica merged to form AmBev. When AmBev joined its activities with Belgium company Interbrew in 2004 to become the world's largest brewer InBev and when in 2008 InBev bought U.S. American brewery Anheuser Busch, and the new AB InBev took over its rival SAB Miller in 2016, both managers were considered the driving force and always stayed in their respective functions.
The Financial times cites several people familiar with the matter, saying that Dutra’s exit is closely linked to AB InBev’s poor performance since taking over SABMiller in 2016 but that the industry veteran was also leaving for personal reasons.
A possible replacement could be Nelson Jamel, currently Vice President of Finance and Solutions at Anheuser-Busch, who holds like Brito a master degree in engineering from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and who followed Dutra as one of his successors in the role as CFO in Ambev from 2009 until 2016. The announcement of the management change could be made in February when AB InBev announces its results for 2019.
