The European Marketing Confederation (EMC) selected Diageo’s Gráinne Wafer as the first winner of the European Marketer of the Year award at a gala ceremony in Madrid. The competition is organised across the EMC’s 11 member countries, the award honours the outstanding contribution made to business by Europe’s top marketing professional. Each EMC marketing body proposes a candidate who goes through a screening process.
Gráinne Wafer is Diageo’s global director for beer, Guinness, Baileys, Smirnoff and Roe & Co whiskey. She is a member of both the Diageo global marketing and senior management teams. Most recently, as global brand director of Guinness, she spearheaded a new strategy and growth agenda for the brand reshaping the marketing model to be community-led, resulting in unprecedented double-digit growth for the brand globally.
After the first round of the formal selection process, there were eight finalists.
Process
An independent jury interviewed each of the shortlisted candidates. All interviews were recorded and adjudicated by each judge, to ensure the integrity and consistency of the process. Jury chairman Martin Huisman said that after judging the various candidates, they were unanimous in their selection of Gráinne Wafer, and were impressed by her leadership qualities, her contribution to the marketing profession and her business achievements.
EMC’s 11 members represents over 1000,000 marketers across national marketing bodies in Germany, the UK, Lithuania, Hungary, Switzerland, Ireland, Ukraine, Austria, Spain, Portugal and The Netherlands. As a non-profit organization, EMC works with its member associations to promote education, social guidance and value creation in marketing throughout Europe.
