- Push-out Score determined
- After about six years in the position
- Responsibilities redistributed
- Search for a successor
(exechange) — Denver, Colorado, January 10, 2022 — Brent Willis, chief executive of NewAge, leaves. As announced by NewAge Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Monday, January 10, 2022, Brent D. Willis leaves his post as chief executive officer at the direct-to-consumer organic and healthy products company, after about six years in the role, effective immediately.
NewAge will undertake a search for a successor.
Following Brent Willis’s departure, the position of Chief Executive Officer will not be filled for the time being. Brent Willis’s responsibilities are being redistributed.
No reason given
In the announcement, NewAge did not explicitly explain the reason for the move.
Precise information regarding Brent Willis’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Resign”
NewAge said: “On January 10, 2022, the board of directors (the “Board”) of the Company and Brent Willis, Chief Executive Officer, agreed that Mr. Willis will resign as Chief Executive Officer, Director, and employee of the Company, effective immediately.”
Share price decline since January 2019
The announcement follows a decline in NewAge Inc.’s share price of 81% since January 2019.
In the position of CEO since 2016
Brent Willis became CEO of the Company in 2016.
Willis was appointed as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Company’s board of directors in April 2016.
Willis has also served as a director or officer of a number of private-equity backed companies, including ULearning.com, an online education company, from April 2015 until March 2016, Vivitris Life Sciences, Inc., a natural life science products company, from December 2015 through March 2016, and XFit Brands, Inc., a functional fitness company, from November 2009 through the present.
From January 2013 until April 2015 he served as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Electronic Cigarettes International Group (“ECIG”), a publicly traded company.
Twenty-three months after Willis’ departure, ECIG filed a voluntary petition under the bankruptcy code.
From 1987 through 2008, Willis served in executive or senior management positions for Kraft Heinz (“KHC”), The Coca-Cola Company (“KO”), AB InBev (“BUD”), and The Cott Corporation (“COT”).
Willis obtained a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1982 and obtained a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Chicago in 1991.
Push-out Score determined
The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding Brent Willis’s move on a scale of 0 to 10.
exechange reached out to NewAge and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 3.2022 ($).