Zoran Maksic

Business Development Director, EMEA Partner Markets at Diageo | Managing Director | Strategy & Transformation | Revenue Growth Management | AI Adoption | Resilient, Crisis-Tested Leader

Croatia

About

I am a senior commercial leader with 25+ years of international experience across consumer goods, spanning business development, Revenue Growth Management, commercial strategy, and transformation. Over the past decade at Diageo, I have led business development across EMEA Partner Markets, contributing to growth in net revenue, volume, profitability, and market share across a distributor network of 60+ countries. Earlier, at Coca-Cola HBC, I built strong foundations in RGM, category thinking, route-to-market, and execution. I help businesses unlock profitable growth, strengthen commercial focus, and turn strategy into execution — particularly in complex, multi-market environments. My areas of focus include pricing, promotion, pack-price architecture, assortment, distributor performance, execution standards, and commercial transformation. I am also increasingly interested in AI adoption as a practical enabler of better decisions, stronger capabilities, and faster business learning. I am particularly drawn to transformational leadership roles where resilience, multi-market leadership, and commercial impact need to come together to drive meaningful results.

Experience

  • Diageo (Hybrid · Hybrid)
    • Business Development Director EMEA partner markets
      Jul 2022 - Present · 4 yrs 1 mo

      Member of the EMEA partner markets Executive Leadership Team. Responsible for long term Commercial transformation strategy & operationalization, Revenue Growth Management, Distributor assessment, Route to Market / Consumer strategy for 60 countries. Managing a team of 5 direct reports and 14 members across the geography. Achievements: Led the implementation of the Commercial Transformation in EMEA. Delivered 1/3 of the market NSV growth via strong coverage, distribution, and POS execution joint business plans with Partners. Awarded for best RGM team globally for 2022. Delivered 1/3 of the market NSV growth via strategic pricing & mix while delivering market share winning promo plans.

    • Revenue & Category Growth Director Russia & EMEA I July 2020 - July 2022 I
      Jul 2020 - Jul 2022 · 2 yrs 1 mo

      Member of the Russia & EMEA Executive Leadership Team. Responsible for Category strategy, Shopper marketing, Customer activation marketing, Innovation commercialization and Revenue Growth Management for 60 countries. Managing a team of 7 direct reports and 44 members across the geography. Achievements: Developed and launched with the team the Team Purpose & Culture. Developed 5-year growth strategy putting the market forward among top 5 investment opportunities globally. Doubled scale of activation in first 6 months vs. the past resulting in profitable market share growth Significantly increased the share of Innovation in the revenue / profit

    • Revenue Growth Manager EMEA Partner Markets
      Aug 2016 - Jul 2020 · 4 yrs

      Member of the market’s Executive Leadership Team since 2019. Designed the winning Brand Pack Price and Promo strategy by subchannel, shopper mission and consumption occasion for 60 countries. Managed a team of 5 members across the geography Achievements: Region recognized as global leader within Diageo in pricing leadership and value creation strategies Implemented significant shifts in brand pack price promo architectures by Subchannel s Responsible for strategic and tactical activation of brands within occasions and evaluation and design of pricing and promotion across channels covering 60 countries.

  • Sales Development Advisor to the company owner, interim assignment at Kvantum-tim
    Mar 2015 - Jul 2016 · 1 yr 5 mos

  • Business Development Advisor to the company owner, interim assignment at Meteor d.d.
    Nov 2014 - Feb 2015 · 4 mos

  • Managing Director at Imperial Tobacco
    2011 - Oct 2014 · 3 yrs 10 mos

  • Managing Director at TBWA
    Aug 2009 - Aug 2011 · 2 yrs 1 mo