Diageo to make structural changes at USL Board

Announces that its earlier CEO Paul Steven Walsh being inducted onto Board of United Spirits as an Additional Director

Global spirits major Diageo, which holds a strategic 25.02% in Vijay Mallya-led United Spirits is moving in further to make key appointments on the Board of United Spirits.

On Monday, it announced that its earlier CEO Paul Steven Walsh is being inducted onto the Board of United Spirits as an Additional Director. Diageo also nominated Vikram Singh Mehta as Additional Independent Director on the Board.

USL has said that Paul Walsh, who has an expansive 31 years experience, will act as an as advisor to the Chairman and CEO. Walsh, by end of June 2013, stepped down as the CEO of Diageo, paving way for Indian-board Ivan Menezes to lead the global spirits major.

Earlier in July, Diageo had nominated its Asia-Pacific head Gilbert Ghostine and  its senior finance executive Ravi Rajagopal as non-executive directors on the Board of United Spirits. Diageo at that time also had named four other non-executive directors to the board - Arun Gandhi, Sudhakar Rao, D Sivanandhan and Renu Karnad.

With the new appointments, the Board of USL will have 12 members from the earlier 8. Vijay Mallya, P A Murali, Ashok Capoor and G N Bajpai are the four from USL.