Grand Metropolitan, the food and drinks giant, will have to wait until
autumn for a new group corporate communications director following the
departure of Mary Carroll.
Carroll announced her resignation from the group last week in a letter
to journalists on several national and trade publications.
‘Internally the news that I was going was starting to get out so I
decided to let everyone know,’ she said.
Carroll has led Grand Metropolitan’s worldwide PR from London since June
1992 when she was promoted from the post of vice-president public
affairs, based in the US.
Reporting to group services director David Tagg and in charge of four
staff, Carroll co-ordinates global PR activities and communications
strategy for the group as a whole. She is also responsible for the work
of external consultants, which includes Brunswick for corporate and
financial support in the UK.
PR for Grand Met’s subsidiaries, such as Burger King, Pillsbury, Haagen
Dazs and International Distillers and Vintners, is the responsibility of
communications staff within those businesses.
Carroll explained that she was quitting the company to join her husband
in the US and that she had no definite plans to take up another job
within Grand Metropolitan or elsewhere. ‘This is the most senior
communications job [in Grand Met] and it has to be in London,’ she
said.
Headhunters have been briefed to help find a successor and an
appointment is expected in the next two months.
