Brown-Forman Corp: CEO Whiting to Retire; Board Considering Internal & External but Company Generally Evolutionary vs. Revolutionary

Research evidence excerpt

Brown-Forman Corp: CEO Whiting to Retire; Board Considering Internal & External but Company Generally Evolutionary vs. Revolutionary

J P M O R G A N North America Equity Research

13 July 2026

Brown-Forman Corp

CEO Whiting to Retire; Board Considering Internal & Underweight

External but Company Generally Evolutionary vs. BFb, BF/B US

Revolutionary Price (13 Jul 26):$26.25

Beverage, Household & Personal

This afternoon, Brown-Forman (BF/B, UW) announced that CEO Lawson Care Products

Whiting plans to retire once the company names a successor, following a search Drew Levine, CFA AC

that will include both internal and external candidates. With the announcement, the (1-212) 622-0374

company also reiterated its FY27 outlook. drew.levine@jpmorgan.com

Andrea Teixeira, CFA

This leadership transition should not be entirely surprising, in our view, given the (1-212) 622-6735

challenging operating backdrop within alcoholic beverages over the past few years andrea.f.teixeira@jpmorgan.com

that has led to leadership changes at a number of companies across the industry Shovana Chowdhury

(e.g., DEO, CPR, RCO, TAP, STZ, HEIA, SAM have all changed CEOs or (1-212) 270-2184

shovana.chowdhury@jpmorgan.com

announced CEO changes since 2025), transformational M&A talks that didn’t J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

materialize (e.g., RI, Sazerac), and languishing stock (BF/B L1Y/L3Y -9.5%/-

60.8% vs. S5CONS -1.0%/+18.5% and spirits peers -22.1%/-58.1%). The

pending leadership transition could introduce additional uncertainty near-

term, but is also likely the clearest path for a strategic shift/reset that could

drive a multiple re-rating. That said, the company has never hired externally

for the CEO position (although recently hired externally for CFO role), is

generally more evolutionary vs.