Alison McMahon has been appointed as Head of Innovation for Heineken Ireland, reporting directly to Marketing Director, Radina Shkutova. Radina Shkutova was announced as the new Marketing Director of Heineken Ireland on December 8th. She joins from the Heineken Zagorka Brewery in Bulgaria where she most recently held the role of Marketing Director. Alison has been with Heineken for 13 years, joining in 2004 as Marketing Planning and Coordination Manager, where she worked on portfolio strategy development. In her next role as On Trade Channel Manager, she led the channel strategy and managed the execution of portfolio activation plans. As Category Strategy & Development Manager, Alison led several key category initiatives such as the introduction of Heineken Star Serve and front end innovation. Most recently, she held the position of Business Strategy Manager, which saw her drive the business strategy agenda within Heineken Ireland. Before joining Heineken Ireland, Alison held various marketing positions in Dairygold Consumer Foods. Her replacement as Business Strategy Manager will be announced in the coming weeks. Radina started her Heineken career in 2005 as Brand Manager on Heineken and global brands. In her prior role, Radina and her team drove significant business growth for Heineken Bulgaria, building a strong portfolio and achieving the leading position in the premium segment. Under her leadership, the cider category was shaped with the introduction of Strongbow in 2015. This was followed by the introduction of Apple Thief cider in 2016, which was based on Heineken Ireland’s Orchard Thieves. Spearheaded by Radina, it was launched within a six week window and delivered an impressive 25% market share of the cider category in year one. She was awarded the prestigious ‘Advertiser of the Year’ award in Bulgaria in 2014 and 2016.
