Habanos Appoints New Executive For Development
Habanos S.A. has named a new vice president for development, a key position that oversees new brands and new marketing efforts around the world. The new executive, José Maria Lopez Inchaurbe, has worked for Habanos, either in Cuba, or as part of its global distributor network, since 2000.
Lopez Inchaurbe replaces Javier Terres de Ercilla who had occupied the position for the past 17 years, and who was involved in such important rollouts as the Cohiba Behike, the Edición Limitada series and the expansion of the Regional Editions. Terres de Ercilla has moved to a position in the premium cigar division of U.K.-based Imperial Brands PLC, the 50 percent partner with Habanos in Cuba's global cigar business.
The new director is an agricultural engineer, who joined Habanos in 2000 after years working with Tabacalera, a Spanish tobacco company that merged with SEITA to create Altadis S.A., which was then purchased by Imperial Brands (then called Imperial Tobacco). He was the vice president of finance from 2003 to 2007 of Diadema Spa, the exclusive distributor of Habanos products in Italy. Lopez Inchaurbe rejoined Habanos directly in 2007, becoming the market supervisor for Europe and the Mediterranean until 2011. That year, he became the strategic marketing director for Habanos until being appointed to his new position on May 17.
