From CIA to beer: Brendan Whitworth’s path to CEO of Anheuser-Busch
Brendan Whitworth’s Journey From Military Service to CEO of an American Icon: From Iraq to Anheuser-Busch
Years before Brendan Whitworth became the CEO of one of the most well-known beer firms in the United States, he had to stay up late in Baghdad, Iraq, studying for business school. He had very little time left, so 29 minutes before the Harvard Business School application deadline, he flew to Washington, D.C., took the exam, and sent in the scores from his cousin’s house.
Whitworth was committed to serving the country at that time, having served as an operations officer for the CIA’s counterterrorism centre before joining the US Marine Corps as a first lieutenant. His older sister Kelty urged him to apply to business school after he had worked for the company for four years. He reluctantly consented, but only provided he submitted an application to the esteemed Boston-area university where Kelty had completed his undergraduate studies.
Whitworth wanted to become a doctor like his father did, so he enrolled in Bucknell College as a freshman in 1994. However, Whitworth discovered himself looking into how to join the Marines halfway through his college career. Whitworth had always loved the military and government service. “I felt fortunate to have been born in the US,” he stated. “I felt like I had to pay that back, like I had a bit of indebtedness that I needed to pay.”
Furthermore, prior to supervising training in Quantico, Virginia, his grandpa served for President Hoover at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “That is where the connection to serving the nation originated,” Whitworth stated. Serving the country “became more of a reality,” according to Whitworth, who gave up on his dream of becoming a doctor.
In order to become an officer in the US Marine Corps, he attended Officer Candidates School prior to his senior year at Bucknell, “marking the final transition from civilian to Marine officer,” the Marines said. According to the Marines, during this period, candidates “show that they are capable of being leaders our nation can depend on.”
Whitworth, who is regarded as the US’s first line of defence, served in the Marines for three years before spending an additional five years at the agency after graduating from Bucknell and OCS. Whitworth chose a different path than the majority of his peers, who chose to pursue careers in finance or management consulting. He remembered cancelling every interview scheduled for that week in order to eventually secure a position at PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division.
He was employed by Anheuser-Busch, which he describes as “an American icon for nearly 170 years,” after only a few short years. He rose swiftly through the ranks in just eight years, taking on the role of CEO by July 2021 after beginning as vice president of the Northeast Region in 2014.
His ability to lead a platoon of soldiers during his time in the Marines is credited as contributing to his success. “They put you through a process to screen you, to see if do you have the capabilities to lead Marines,” he stated. “Then they give you what they believe are the right leadership principles… then they give you a platoon of Marines, and you have to go see if that all works.”
He needed to figure out how to leave an impact on people whose lives and origins were so dissimilar from his own. “That early experience gave me an understanding that I have continued to build upon – what it means to connect with, sell to, market to someone from Philadelphia or someone from San Antonio,” Whitworth stated.
