Jonathan Nicholas Mark Potter (born 19 November 1963) is the managing director of the House of Suntory and Maison Courvoisier at Beam Suntory. He is a former field hockey player who was a member of the gold-winning Great Britain squad at the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Summer Olympics in Seoul. Following his retirement from hockey, he worked in the marketing departments for companies including KP Foods, Nestle, and

Diageo Diageo plc () is a Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It was the world's largest distiller before being overtaken by Kweich ...

Background

Potter was born

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

, Greater London, and brought up in

Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...

, England. He attended Burnham Grammar School from 1976 to 1982, and represented Slough and

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

Schools at soccer, the South of England Schoolboys, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire Minor Counties at cricket, as well as England Schoolboys at field hockey. Potter graduated from

Southampton University , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

in 1986 with a BA (Hons) in geography, and attended Aston Business School (1986–87) to obtain his MBA. He currently lives in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, US, with Tracy and their four children: Max, Hugo, Sophie and Lucy.

Field hockey career

Jon Potter went on to represent Great Britain and England at the highest levels in

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

. He has competed in three

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, winning bronze in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and, four years later, gold at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. In total Potter won 126 caps for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

and 108 caps for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, scoring 41 international goals. He competed in 3 World Cups, winning a silver medal at the Hockey World Cup in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

in London, and in three European Cups, winning silver in Moscow (1987) and bronze in Paris (1991). He also captured two Champions Trophy medals with Great Britain – bronze in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

(1984) and silver in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

(1985). He played club hockey with Hounslow Hockey Club, where he helped the men's 1XI win the European Cup Winners Cup in 1990 and won the HA Cup four times as well as the National League title twice. He retired from international hockey in 1995 and was a board member of

England Hockey England Hockey is the national governing body for the sport of field hockey in England. There are separate governing bodies for the sport in the other parts of the United Kingdom. History and organisation England Hockey was formed on 1 January 2 ...

Ltd from 2003 to 2007.

Business career

While representing his country at field hockey, Potter embarked on an international business career when in March 1988 he joined KP Foods, a Division of

United Biscuits United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In Nove ...

as a marketing assistant. He worked at KP Foods for 4 years before joining Nestle Rowntree in York, Yorkshire as a Marketing Controller overseeing various brands. He moved with Nestle to the Prague, Czech Republic in May 1995 where he worked as a Marketing Director for Cokoladovny a Nestle/

Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of t ...

joint venture.

Diageo

Jon left Nestle to join Guinness Brewing Ltd in December 1997 as European marketing and business development director responsible for the company's portfolio of brands across Continental Europe.

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...

and IDV merged to create a new company,

, a premium drinks company that is the world's largest producer of spirits, where Jon Potter went on to hold various senior leadership roles within this newly merged company. Between October 2000 and 2004, he was the global brand director for the Guinness brand before moving onto become first commercial director for Diageo Africa in July 2004 and then general manager Venture Africa and sales development between July 2005 and July 2007. In August 2007, Potter moved to the US initially to become the president, global vodka and rum portfolio and then, in August 2008 CMO for Diageo North America.

McKinney Rogers

After 13 years with

, Jon left to join McKinney Rogers as a senior partner (Americas), global CMO and CMO for a venture capital startup. The company worked with many

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

companies on their global business execution and won the

Queens award for enterprise The King's Awards for Enterprise, previously known as The Queen's Awards for Enterprise, is an awards programme for British businesses and other organizations who excel at international trade, innovation, sustainable development or promoting oppo ...

in 2010.

Moet Hennessy

Jon joined Moet Hennessy USA as EVP of brands in July 2012 overseeing a portfolio of brands that includes Hennessy, Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Dom Perignon, Krug, Belvedere Vodka and Glenmorangie.

The Boston Beer Company

Jon was appointed Boston Beer's first CMO, holding the position from 2016 to 2018. During this time, he launched Truly Hard Seltzer in the US and returned Boston Beer to double-digit growth.

Beam Suntory

Jon joined Beam Suntory in 2020 having previously consulted with the company in 2019. He was appointed managing director of Courvoisier in February and added the responsibility of managing director House of Suntory in May 2020.

Directorships

Potter has held various directorships during his career, including English Hockey Ltd (2003–2007), Orleans Infants School governor (2004 to 2007),

Kenya Breweries East African Breweries Limited, commonly referred to as EABL, is a Kenyan-based holding company that manufactures branded beer, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages. Overview The group's headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, with subsi ...

(2004–2006), Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (2004 to 2007), Seychelles Breweries Ltd (2005 to 2007), Ketel One Worldwide (2008 to 2009), board member of the Ad Council (2009–2010), and Skyliners Synchronized Skating board member (2011 to 2014). He is currently an advisor to Nomadica (2019–present).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Jon 1963 births Living people English male field hockey players English Olympic medallists Olympic field hockey players of Great Britain British male field hockey players Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Field hockey players at the 1984 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Alumni of the University of Southampton Olympic medalists in field hockey People educated at Burnham Grammar School Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics 1990 Men's Hockey World Cup players