Tolu Adedeji — Global Marketing & Commercial Leader

About

A brand-builder who thinks like an owner and leads like a board director.

Tolu Adedeji is a marketing and commercial leader with more than twenty years across Procter & Gamble and AB InBev (International Breweries & Labatt Breweries Canada). She pioneered new categories and led global brands — Pampers, Always, Ariel and Oral-B — across several markets, coast to coast, then moved into senior commercial leadership in beverages.

At International Breweries Plc (AB InBev), she served as Marketing Director and Executive Board Director, leading the strategy that grew local revenue by 81.3% — over US$200M — through a demanding post-merger integration. She was later appointed Senior Director at Labatt Breweries of Canada.

She builds brands the market chooses, teams that outlast her tenure, and governance that earns stakeholder trust — the combination CMO searches and board nominating committees are looking for.

Education & Recognition

HBSMarketing in a Digital EraHarvard Business School — Executive Education

MScInternational ManagementUniversity of Liverpool

MBABusiness AdministrationObafemi Awolowo University

BScBusiness Administration, First Class HonoursBabcock University

2023Cannes Lions ShortlistTrophy Stout — a brand she designed and launched from scratch with her team — became the Country's first indigenous brand shortlisted for a Cannes Lions award

2022Marketing Personality of the DecadeMarketing Edge

What she brings

Executive strengths, proven at scale.

The levers a modern CMO and an effective board director are measured on — applied across regulated and non-regulated categories, developed and emerging markets.

Brand & Growth Strategy

Category creation, positioning, and multi-brand portfolio strategy that translate into measurable, compounding revenue — from launch to market leadership, including +11 pts of portfolio brand-equity growth over four years.

Commercial & Financial Rigor

Four years in finance before her marketing career give her genuine P&L ownership — joint business planning and an ROI-driven mindset that ties every marketing dollar to a business outcome.

Governance & Board Oversight

Public-company board experience across strategy, brand & reputation risk, capital allocation, and performance oversight in a Fortune 500 context.

Selected work

Campaigns and categories that moved markets.

New-to-the-world brands built

Led ground-up brand development — positioning, architecture, archetype and platform — creating multiple brands, pack sizes and formats from scratch. Highlights include Trophy Extra Special Stout, Flying Fish (Golden Bottle), and Ariel upsizing, which introduced large sachets that grew the category. She also led the global team — spanning Geneva, Dubai and Singapore — that designed Head & Shoulders for African hair and scalp for the first time.

10% share in 18 months15% of revenue in 4 years — mostly incremental

New-to-market

Budweiser × FIFA World Cup

Led the team on a breakthrough Budweiser official World Cup campaign — including originating the idea for a World Cup anthem built on collaborations across influencers in multiple global markets — a 360° activation that set Budweiser apart from every other sponsor. She also led the first-ever representation of African markets in Budweiser's global World Cup film, just a few years after the brand's launch on the continent. Creative campaigns like these drove her market into Budweiser's global top 7 in under four years.

Top 7 Budweiser market globally20+ global markets

Global campaign

Budweiser Smooth Kings Remix

Created the first digital reality music show blending nostalgia with modern culture — 2 seasons, 20 episodes, 40+ artists — making Budweiser the fastest-growing premium brand for three consecutive years, through COVID.

50M+ organic views2 seasons

Culture / content

Always "Up to 8 Hours, No Check"

Created in her very first role as an assistant brand manager, the "Up to 8 Hours, No Check" campaign travelled from her local market to multiple markets across continents — becoming an Always signature campaign that ran for over a decade.

Decades as a signature campaignMulti-continent reach

Where it began

Board & governance

Board-tested, and ready for the next room.

Executive Board Director at a publicly listed AB InBev subsidiary, with oversight across portfolio strategy, brand governance, risk and large-scale commercial investment — complemented by active nonprofit board service since 2019.

Portfolio & growth strategy

Brand & reputation risk

Capital allocation

Post-merger integration

Cross-border operations

Innovation & market entry

Digital & AI-enabled growth

Talent development at scale

Recognition

A career the industry has noticed.

2023

Cannes Lions Shortlist

Trophy Stout — a brand she designed and launched from scratch with her team — became the Country's first indigenous brand shortlisted for a Cannes Lions award.

2022

Marketing Personality of the Decade

Marketing Edge — recognising a decade of category-defining brand leadership.

Canada

Senior Director, Labatt Breweries of Canada

Led Trade Marketing, Sales Operations & E-commerce with a team of 25. Market programs delivered share growth for Labatt against a declining industry — and she became the first Nigerian director in the company's 175-year history.