BAT appoints new chief to succeed Jack Bowles immediately

British American Tobacco chief executive Jack Bowles is stepping down with immediate effect, the company said on Monday.

Bowles, who has led the tobacco group since 2019, will be succeeded by BAT’s finance director Tadeu Marroco.

The FTSE 100 group provided few details on the abrupt exit of Bowles, with chair Luc Jobin saying in a statement, “to fully deliver on our transformation in a fast-changing environment we must continue to evolve as a high performing and agile consumer goods company”.

Bowles, who has been at BAT for 20 years, said “it is now the time for a change of leadership to take the business to the next level”.

The elevation of Marroco to the top job comes after BAT last month paid a $635mn penalty to US authorities, the largest settlement of its kind, over North Korean sanction violations.

BAT has also faced some pressure from shareholders to move its primary listing to New York.