Diageo appoints Joan Odafe-Ejumedia as its new Innovations Manager, Reserve

A multinational alcoholic beverage company, Diageo has appointed marketing communications professional, Joan Odafe-Ejumedia as its new Innovations Manager, Reserve at Diageo South, West & Central Africa.

Prior to her new position, she was Brand Manager, Reserve for the same company where she managed the reserve brands, besides driving consumer connections, experiences, and profitability.

Joan is an experience marketing communications professional with proven delivery of integrated marketing communications strategy, brand visibility executions across retail environments, Promotions (consumer and brand led) and trade channel management within the FMCG Industry.

She is skilled in Brand strategy development, Negotiation, Market data analysis, Consumer channel management, and Brand Management.

Before joining Diageo, she was the Brand Manager, Gum, and Candy, West Africa for Mondelez International (Cadbury Nigeria and Ghana Plc.) where she managed brand value delivery to consumers and stakeholders. She joined the company in 2021 as the Perfect Store & Hot Zone Manager.

Her career journey started as a Business Development Executive at Pet-Bamok & Company where she was responsible for making cold calls, identifying new leads, promoting products, performing follow up duties etc.

She then moved to Proximity Communications Nigeria as the Client Service Executive and Administration & Human Resource Executive. At Redbox Africa, Joan served as Business Development Manager.

Other places she has worked include Seven-Up Bottling Company, Ideas House Marketing Communications Limited, Rutforce Marketing Service, and Watermark & Victor.

Announcing the promotion on her LinkedIn page, she said “I’m grateful for the experiences and skills I developed during my time as Brand Manager, Reserve and I’m eager to apply them in this new role.

“I’m looking forward to understanding the opportunities across 15 new markets and building a strong innovation portfolio pipeline in the coming year and I am most excited about the level of work to be done with the cross-functional teams in these markets and within the region.

“Thank you to my ever supportive and guiding Bosses Mark Mugisha and Osato Evbuomwan for your steer and encouragement, and my amazing teammates at Guinness Nigeria Plc. I’m excited to connect with new teammates in this new capacity!”

Joan holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Ilorin, UNILORIN, and a master’s degree in industrial and Labour Relations from the University of Lagos, UNILAG.

She is an alumnus of Orange Academy, Lagos, where she did Integrated Brand Experience, Marketing Communications.

She completed a BMA Advanced Brand Management Marketing and Business Leadership course. Joan is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.