FDBusiness.com

The board of SABMiller intends to appoint Jan du Plessis as Chairman in succession to John Manser at the conclusion of the annual general meeting in July 2015, when Mr Manser will, as previously intimated, retire from the board, having deferred his previously expected retirement date for one year. This will allow for an appropriate period of familiarisation and handover, and facilitate orderly succession planning. Jan du Plessis will also join the Nomination Committee with effect from 1 September 2014.

Jan du Plessis is chairman of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited, having been appointed to that role in 2009, following his appointment as a director in 2008. He has been a non-executive director of Marks and Spencer Group plc since 2008 and senior independent director since March 2012. Jan du Plessis has agreed with the Chairman of Marks and Spencer that he will stand down from the board of Marks and Spencer during the first half of 2015, before being appointed as Chairman of SABMiller.

In his earlier career, Jan du Plessis was Group Finance Director of Compagnie Financière Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods group, from 1988 until 2004. He was appointed as a non-executive director of British American Tobacco plc in 1999 and became Chairman in 2004, a position which he held until 2009. He was a non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee of Lloyds Banking Group plc from 2005 and 2008 respectively, until 2009.

He has degrees in commerce and law from the University of Stellenbosch, and qualified as a chartered accountant in South Africa.

Jan du Plessis comments: “I have tremendous admiration for the way in which SABMiller has transformed itself over the last decade into one of the world’s leading brewers. With a life-time of experience in the world of international consumer brands, joining the board of SABMiller is simply one of the most natural decisions I could ever hope to make. I am honoured to have been invited, and very excited about the future of this great company.”