FDBusiness.com

Gavin Hewitt, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, has been elected President of the European Spirits Organisation – CEPS. The European Spirits Organisation – CEPS is the representative body for the spirits industry at the European level. Its membership comprises 30 national associations representing the industry in 26 countries, as well as a group of leading spirits producing companies.

Gavin Hewitt.

Gavin Hewitt has been chief executive of The Scotch Whisky Association since October 2003. Prior to joining the spirits sector, he had been the British Ambassador to Croatia, to Finland and to Belgium. Throughout his diplomatic career, he had wide experience of European affairs from being a member of the British Negotiating Team in Brussels for the United Kingdom’s accession to the European Union through to the Finnish and Belgian presidencies in 1999 and 2001.

During his two-year term of office, his main objective will be to drive home to the European institutions the economic importance of the spirits sector and to secure recognition that it is living up to the high standards of responsibility that it has set itself.