When the CEO of Anheuser-Busch interviewed potential recruits for the world’s largest brewing group, he had a favorite question.
“Tell me about a time when it didn’t work out or things didn’t go as planned,” he likes to ask.
If Brendan Whitworth finds himself asking the same question, he now has plenty of material to draw on.
Whitworth, 46, has seen his biggest brand — Bud Light — mired in a firestorm of controversy since they teamed up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on April 1.
Mulvaney was released with her own version of a can of beer to celebrate the year of her transition from male to female: a move that infuriated Bud Light drinkers, and saw $6 billion rip off Anheuser-Busch’s value. Factories across the US have been hit with bomb threats amid the uproar.
Brendan Whitworth, 46, has been CEO of Anheuser-Busch since July 2021. His company is now in the middle of a firestorm over its decision to partner with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney
Mulvaney announced the partnership with Bud Light herself on Instagram on April 1
In celebration of Mulvaney’s first year of being transgender, she sent Bud Light a box with her face printed on it
Whitworth made that public statement on Friday, after two weeks of controversy
On Friday Whitworth issued a statement announcing: “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.
“We’re in the business of getting people together for a beer.”
The decision to team up with Mulvaney was reportedly made by a low-level marketing director, but that didn’t stop Whitworth and Bud Light’s VP of marketing, Alyssa Heinsreid, from facing a torrent of criticism.
However, few are better positioned to take advantage of difficult situations throughout their lives than Whitworth – an “all-American hero” and trainee doctor who joined the Marines – where he was a top athlete – and the CIA, which recruits and deals with spies throughout the Middle East. before going to Harvard Business School.
Whitworth has lived across the United States, and has been a registered Republican for most of his life.
“I felt lucky to be born in the United States,” he said. “I felt like I needed to pay that amount back — like I had a little bit of indebtedness that I needed to pay off.”
Whitworth grew up in the Alapocas Woods outside Wilmington, Delaware – the son of physician Michael Whitworth and his wife, Sarah.
He attended Salesianum, a Catholic high school in Wilmington, and graduated in 1994, after leading the school’s football team to a state championship victory. He was also a diabolical academic, earning direct earnings as pre-calculus honors.
Whitworth was spotted in the early 1990s, in an article about the athletic and academic star in his local Delaware newspaper
Whitworth qualified for the Ironman World Championships—a super-triathlon competition held annually in Hawaii—but didn’t replace him, joining the CIA in 2001 instead.
Then Whitworth decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and study medicine, as he entered Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
However, halfway through his college career, his mind changed.
Always impressed by military and government service, he decided to join the Marine Corps, attending Officer Cadet School and commissioned as a lieutenant in his senior year.
Whitworth played high school soccer in Wilmington and at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania
His grandfather worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under Chief Hoover, before he ran training in Quantico, Virginia.
“That’s where the kind of association with serving the country came from,” Whitworth said. Fox News In an interview Oct.
At age 25, Whitworth, 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California, making headlines as an Iron Man.
He ran the Marine Corp marathon in an impressive 2 hours and 55 minutes, and the following year qualified for the Ironman World Championships—the triathlon held annually in Hawaii.
However, Whitworth did not take his place: by that time he had decided to leave the Marine Corps, after three years, and join the CIA.
In the aftermath of 9/11, from 2001 to 2006 Whitworth worked in some of the most difficult regions around the world at the height of the War on Terror – Pakistan, Tunisia, Iraq.
LinkedIn describes his role as: “Specializing in the recruitment and processing of human resources with access to vital intelligence that has prevented and disrupted terrorist threats.”
Whitworth is seen addressing an Anheuser-Busch rally
The CEO of Anheuser-Busch is seen during a Belgian economic mission to the US in June 2022. AB-InBev, the parent company of Anheuser-Busch, is headquartered in Belgium
His family was proud, but worried.
His older sister Keltie—an All-American swimmer at Ursuline Academy in Delaware, then went on to Harvard—told him it was time to get out.
While she appreciated what I was doing, she would continually say, like any protective sibling would, “Well, I’ve done eight years now… How about you put yourself first?” Fox Business.
Whitworth described his sister as a “strong and powerful opinion” on his life.
He reluctantly agreed with her, but on the condition that he would only leave if he entered Harvard, like her.
“There are a bunch of great business schools out there, but I always felt like they had something for me, too,” he explained.
So, I was like, ‘Okay, okay, I’m going there.'”
He prepared for the administration’s graduate admissions test while in Baghdad, studying late at night after his CIA shifts ended.
In 2006 he arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Whitworth continued to play sports, particularly rugby.
But he focused on his studies, and got an excellent job at PepsiCo after graduation.
In 2013, he joined AB-Inbev – a Belgium-based brewing company, formed from the merger of American Anheuser-Busch with brewing companies around the world.
He rose through the ranks, leading the Trade Marketing, Categories and Sales Technology departments before becoming US President of Sales in November 2017, and finally US CEO.
“It’s hard to find some things that are as closely associated with the United States of America as Anheuser-Busch,” he said at the time of his July 2021 hiring.
Whitworth has been seen in Budweiser greeting drinkers at a trade show
Whitworth and his wife live in a $7 million apartment inside this Manhattan townhouse
Whitworth lives in Manhattan, but commutes regularly to Anheuser-Busch headquarters in St. Louis
This passion for country is naturally connected to that of Anheuser-Busch and I grew up drinking Budweiser.
“I’d bring Budweiser to college parties, not really caring what was in the barrel.”
Whitworth credits his naval training with helping him rise to the top of corporate America.
“They put you through a process to examine you, to see if you had the capabilities to lead the Marine Corps,” he said.
Then they give you what they think are the principles of correct leadership and then they give you a Marine platoon, and you have to go see if it all works.
“That early experience gave me an appreciation that I’ve continued to build on—what it’s like to call, sell to, or market to someone from Philadelphia or someone from San Antonio.”
It definitely made him a rich man.
It is believed that Whitworth earns $12 million annually, and lives with his wife, Meredith, in a $7 million apartment on the Upper East Side, near Central Park.
Will draws on all of his expertise as he helps Anheuser-Busch weather Storm Mulvaney.
None of us get it right every time. We are not supposed to do that he told Business Insiderin a November 2021 interview about his hiring approach.
“But I want to see people who get it wrong and then quickly move on to try to make it right.”
