August Busch IV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| August Busch IV | |
| Born | 1964 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Occupation | President and CEO, Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. |
| Spouse | Kathryn "Kate" Thatcher |
| Parents | August Busch III and Susan Busch |
August Anheuser Busch IV (born 1964) is the great-great-grandson of Anheuser-Busch founder Adolphus Busch, the son of former chairman, president and CEO August Busch III and on December 1, 2006 succeeded Patrick Stokes, who held the positions of president and CEO of the company since July 2002. [1]
Busch is known by industry insiders as "The Fourth", while closer friends and associates refer to him as "August".
Contents |
[edit] Leadership at Anheuser-Busch
On September 27, 2006, Anheuser-Busch also announced the election of Busch as a member of the Board of Directors effective September 27, 2006. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors (since December 1, 2006).
He is the fifth generation of Busch family members to lead the company. Patrick Stokes has been named chairman of the board, effective December 1, 2006, succeeding August A. Busch III. Stokes had succeeded August III in his current positions. Stokes' tenure from June 2002 to November 30, 2006 marked the first time in the history of the company that a non-Busch family member ran the day to day operations.
[edit] Former role
August IV served as president of the company's brewing subsidiary, Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated, prior to his promotion and had previously served as its Group Vice President-Marketing and Wholesale Operations (2000-2002). He was Vice President and Group Executive of the Company and had served in such capacity since 2000. He has been an officer of the company since 1996.
He continues to serve on the boards of Anheuser-Busch and FedEx.
[edit] Move to the top
August IV discovered his passion when he moved to marketing in 1989. His success was not immediate, though. His first brand-management assignment was on a new beer, Bud Dry. Initially Bud Dry looked like a winner, but sales quickly dried up. Consumers didn't understand the concept of "dry," and his ad campaign ("Why Ask 'Why'?") suggests he didn't either.
He redeemed himself with Budweiser. The world's biggest beer brand (22% of industry sales in the U.S.), Budweiser is also the main tap for Anheuser-Busch's profits. Budweiser sales topped out in 1990, however, as young drinkers were switching to imports and microbrews. Bud, according to twentysomethings commentary in surveys, was the beer parents drink, in cans, at the bowling alley in Sheboygan. August IV told his father that Bud sales would grow only if they revamped the beer's image. "There was a culture weaved into the Budweiser brand," he said. "No one wanted to change it." His idea was to take Budweiser off its pedestal and move it onto "the toadstool".
August Busch III thought his son was nuts when he saw the monosyllabic frogs who croak "Bud...weis...er." August IV insisted the frogs would make Bud hip. He poured on research, and August III gave in. The Budweiser frog campaign, produced by DDB Needham, was the No. 1 favorite of TV viewers, according to Video Storyboard Tests, which surveyed 4,000 consumers quarterly. Asked whether he has lost his legendary instinct for great advertising, August III admitted, "I've lost the ability to understand the 21- to 30-year-olds the way I used to." [1]
[edit] Education and early career
August Busch IV was an undergraduate at University of Arizona. He holds both a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in finance from Saint Louis University. He has a brewmaster’s degree from the International Brewing Institute in Berlin.
After graduating from Saint Louis University in the mid-1980s, he was required to follow the career path his father trod, starting at the bottom of Anheuser-Busch. The Fourth worked as a brewing apprentice in the Old Malt House as a union member of Brewers & Maltsters Local 6 in St. Louis, Missouri, as an intern in the Culture Yeast Center, and later as a foreman in packaging and shipping operations [2]. His father, August III, reached out to his corps of German brewmasters to train and mentor the young August IV, most especially including:
- Gerhardt A. Kraemer, Group Vice President for Global Brewing
- Dr. Klaus D. Zastrow, Vice-President for Brewing Technical Services
- Dr. Heinrich K. Heissinger, Vice-President for Brewing Operations
- Dr. Herbert Hindelang, Vice President for Corporate Quality Assurance
- Carl Adam, Group Director, Brewing Operations for 13 U.S. Breweries
- Heinrich W. Schmid, Senior Manager for Culture Yeast Science
Anheuser-Busch employed around 60 world renowned German brewmasters from the 1940s through the 1990s.
[edit] Background
Busch's parents divorced when he was five and he lived with his mother. His time with his father was mostly at the brewery and their relationship was more professional than a typical father-son one.[2]
August A. Busch IV stands approximately 5'10" and weighs around 175 lbs. He holds advanced black belt degrees in the martial arts disciplines of Judo, Tae-Kwon-Do and Hapkido. Like his wildly popular grandfather, Gussie Busch, August IV is a supporter of Democratic Party politics at the local, state, and national level and champions a variety of social causes.
He is married to the former Kathryn "Kate" Thatcher, and resides in St. Louis County, Missouri. As of 2007, the couple have no children.
[edit] Run-ins with the law
In 1983, while attending college in Arizona, Busch was involved in a wreck that killed a young woman riding with him in his Corvette.[2][3] According to Tucson, AZ police, Busch had left a bar early one morning and wrecked his vehicle while making a sharp turn at high speed. His passenger, a local waitress, flew through the sunroof, and was killed in the accident. Busch left the scene of the accident without informing the police. Police found him at his Tucson townhouse eight hours later with blood still on his person. Manslaughter charges against Busch were eventually dropped after evidence (blood and urine taken from Busch the day of the accident) was lost or damaged.
Busch was arrested again in 1985 after leading police on a high-speed car chase. He was accused of intentionally trying to run over two officers with his Mercedes.[2] He was acquitted by a St. Louis jury.
Soon after, he was found guilty of another speeding violation, and received a one-year probation.
[edit] References
- ^ Associated Press. "A Busch Retakes the Reins", The New York Times, 28 September 2006. Retrieved on 2007-07-21.
- ^ a b c Kosmodel, David, "Anheuser CEO Fight for His Legacy," Wall Street Journal, A1, May 27, 2008
- ^ Beer Blast!, book by Philip Munchen, 1998
[edit] Further reading
- Forbes; March 3, 2006
- Business Week; November 11, 2002
- Fortune Magazine; January 13, 1997; "BUD-WEIS-HEIR August Busch IV is rebellious, risk-taking--and (nearly) ready to rule the world's largest brewer". [3]
- Under the Influence: The Unauthorized Story of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty, Peter Hernon & Terry Ganey, Avon Books 1992
