Bacardi’s Zeenah Vilcassim joins Zomato Live Entertainment as CEO

Zeenah Vilcassim, the former marketing director of Bacardi, will be taking over as the chief executive of Zomato’s experience arm, Zomato Live Entertainment.

Vilcassim was promoted in April 2021 to head consumer and customer marketing across the entire Bacardi portfolio of brands. She joined Bacardi four years ago as global brand director for Dewar’s Scotch whisky. She was based out of the company’s Gurugram office.

Bacardi sells its signature rum brands in India apart from a portfolio of premium spirits such as Bombay Sapphire gin, Grey Goose vodka, Dewar’s Blended Scotch whisky.

Vilcassim began her career as an economist before joining consulting firm EY. She has held previous positions within digital analytics and content, she led the UK operations as managing director at online community platform Protein before joining the team at Bacardi, the company said in a statement.

In June, the company has launched its debut India-specific campaign after nearly two decades in the country. This year-long initiative aims to cater to localised markets across India.

In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18, Vilcassim, spoke about the significance of India as a market, their target to touch 6X business by 2030.

“When we set our global strategy in 2018, Bacardi identified five key emerging markets that would drive most of its global growth. These markets were India, Mexico, South Africa, China and Russia. India was the top market, with a dynamic consumer market and a diverse and unique culture,” she said.

The company's goal for India was grow its business by 6x by 2030.

“Actually the goal was originally to touch 5X by 2030 but the trajectory that we're going on, it's now 6x, by 2030,” she shared.

Also read: India leads the list for top 5 emerging markets for Bacardi: Zeenah Vilcassim