British American Tobacco Appoints Jack Bowles To Succeed Nicandro Durante As CEO

(RTTNews) - British American Tobacco plc (BATS.L, BTI) announced Tuesday that Jack Bowles, currently Chief Operating Officer of BAT's international business, will succeed Nicandro Durante as Chief Executive Officer following Durante's retirement on April 1, 2019.

In anticipation of this appointment, Bowles will become Chief Executive Designate on November 1, 2018 and will join the Board on January 1, 2019.

It was on September 20 that Durante informed the Board of his intention to retire on April 1, 2019.

Bowles joined BAT in 2004 as CEO of BAT France and thereafter became Managing Director of the BAT listed subsidiary in Malaysia. He was appointed to the Management Board of BAT in 2009 as Regional Director for Western Europe. Subsequently, he served as Regional Director in both the Americas Region and the Asia-Pacific Region before assuming his current role as Chief Operating Officer in 2017.

Richard Burrows, Chairman of BAT, said, "Having conducted a far-reaching succession process with strong external and internal candidates, the Board is delighted to appoint such an experienced and dynamic successor from within BAT. Throughout his career at BAT, Jack has demonstrated excellent strategic leadership; growing businesses, driving productivity improvements and building strong management teams. In his most recent roles, as Director, Asia-Pacific and, as COO, he has played a key role in developing our potentially reduced risk products business."