Duty Free Global has appointed Justin Weston to the dual role of Senior Vice President Middle-East and Asia Pacific and Chief Marketing Officer, effective September 1, 2023.
Weston brings an impressive resume to his new positions. He is an experienced luxury sales and marketing executive with a long career spent living and working across Europe, the U.S., the Middle East and Asia Pacific, a region where he has particularly long-standing working relationships and contacts. He moved to Dubai in 2022, a return to a region he knows well from his childhood spent accompanying his British Diplomat father.
Previous positions include working with British conglomerate Jardine Matheson in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan; with LVMH Group in France; and in the Napa Valley wine country in the U.S.
After this he joined the Remy-Cointreau Group, initially as the effective CMO of the Liqueurs & Spirits brands and then as CEO of Cointreau.
In 2014, Weston moved to Singapore to set up the global duty free operations for William Grant & Sons. Next came four years as Managing Director, Asia for Campari, where he set up a new RTM across the region. In 2021, Justin joined Actavia, a consulting firm specializing in RTM and brand building, initially in Singapore, before moving in August of 2022 to Dubai to set up their office there.
“I am delighted at this opportunity to work with Barry and his team at Duty Free Global, both as their ‘man-on-the-ground’ in the re-accelerating of Middle East and Asia Duty Free markets and to support more broadly the many excellent global brands that DFG represents,” commented Weston.
“I have always believed that Duty Free can play a key role in wider brand building efforts as well as afford numerous opportunities for interaction with consumers. Barry and DFG have an enviable reputation in Duty Free and I look forward to building on that.”
Barry Geoghegan commented: “On behalf of all the team at Duty Free Global (DFG) we extend our warmest welcome to Justin. We believe with Justin’s vast 25-year experience in building luxury global liquor brands he will add a huge amount of knowledge to our channel dedicated team at DFG.
“In his dual role with DFG we are delighted to have Justin head up the strategically crucial Middle East and Asia Pacific region. Justin’s many years living in the region in Hong Kong, Japan, Sing-apore, Australia and Dubai give him a first-hand understanding of the nuances and culture of the region which will be a huge asset to the DFG team.
“Allied to his regional role Justin’s many years as a luxury marketer in the wines and spirits business will prove invaluable to our brand partners as we jointly develop the best in class marketing approach to succeed in the channel.”
The Duty Free Global team will be exhibiting in Cannes at stand J35 in the Green Village.
