Greene King appoints first female chief as long-standing boss stands down
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Pub group Greene King’s long-standing boss Nick Mackenzie is to step down and be replaced by the aptly-named Clair Preston-Beer as its first ever female chief executive, the firm has announced.
Mr Mackenzie will stand down at the end of February after leading Britain’s second biggest pub chain for nearly eight years.
He will be succeeded at the helm by chief digital and commercial officer Ms Preston-Beer, becoming the first woman to take on the top job in its 227-year history.
She has worked at Greene King since 2020, when she first joined as managing director of pubs, and was previously a senior executive at Whitbread, where she helped scale-up the Costa Coffee brand in the UK and overseas before its sale to The Coca-Cola Company in 2019.
Mr Mackenzie said: “It has been the privilege of my career to lead Greene King for nearly eight years.”
He added: “I am delighted that Clair will be taking the reins and having worked closely with her for the last six years, I know she shares my passion for the industry and is an exceptionally qualified successor to take Greene King forward and deliver the next chapter in its long and illustrious history.”
Ms Preston-Beer said the group has an “ambitious strategy in place that is focused on growing share in a challenging environment”, with technology being used to help improve processes across the chain.
She said: “We have prioritised investment in data and AI to ensure that every pub is easier for our teams to run, every customer experience more personal and every decision better informed.”
Mr Mackenzie will remain on the board to help with the transition next year.
During his tenure at Greene King, Mr Mackenzie led the group through its takeover by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Assets in 2019 and has since been spearheading an overhaul of its pubs and brewery operations.
It said in March it was hiving off about 300 managed pubs into a new business division, with about half earmarked for sale.
And in May, it struck a deal to sell Old Speckled Hen to the owner of Estrella Damm amid a shift away from producing beer for sale in retailers and supermarkets.
This will see it close its Westgate Brewery in Bury St Edmunds in the long term, but it is building a new site in the town.
Greene King employs around 38,000 workers and has about 2,500 pubs, restaurants and hotels.
