CEO who bought Budweiser is a workaholic

InBev boss is frugal ‘American-style’ manager who focuses on results

	Inbev CEO Carlos Brito doesn't have his own personal assistant or company car and shares a desk with top finance, marketing and human resources executives in an open office.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert / AP

updated 7:20 p.m. ET July 20, 2008

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The man who would be King of Beers is a no-frills leader without a company car or even his own desk.

Carlos Brito, chief executive of brewer InBev SA, says he doesn't care for perks — and neither should the people who work for him.

"I don't want the company to give me free beer; I can buy my own beer," he told Stanford MBA students earlier this year.

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Brito, who will be leading Anheuser-Busch after the company agreed to InBev's $52 billion takeover offer, has been described as "an American-style" manager who is fiercely private and admits himself that he did not always get "the people thing," when he started off in sales.

Anheuser-Busch is a perked-up company with corporate jets for executives and free beer for the workers — as well as generous donations to local communities and politicians. Similar employee extras at Belgium's Interbrew vanished when it merged with Brito's Brazil-based AmBev in 2004.

"His reputation precedes him as a no-frills, no-thrills severe cost-cutter," says Eric Shepard, editor of beer industry newsletter Beer Marketer's Insights.

Brito rarely grants interviews and is reticent with the press, sticking to a few standard lines when he must face the camera for InBev's annual results or shareholders' meetings. The company refused to even confirm whether he was married with four children, saying "We don't give details on his private life."

Alberto Cerqueira Lima, a former colleague of Brito's at Brazilian brewer Brahma and now head of a Massachusetts-based market research firm, says "if he could, he would remain anonymous," describing Brito as a "workaholic and a methodical and pragmatic executive."

He showed himself to be a careful businessman who kept his cool during a difficult monthlong courtship of Anheuser-Busch when both companies threatened to start a hostile battle.

"He says the right things," says Shepard. "He knew the kind of backlash that he was going to get and I don't think he ever betrayed any sort of hostility even as they were making hostile moves."

"Publicly, he maintained that he wanted a friendly combination and ultimately that's what he got," he said.

The new company will create the world's largest beer company, turning out major brands such as Budweiser and Stella Artois. InBev's focus on carving costs made it the world's most profitable brewer, wringing profit from stagnant markets and winning admiration from shareholders and the rest of the industry — but angering workers.

"It's quite an American style compared to the Western European standard," said Kris Kippers, an analyst at Belgian investment firm Petercam. "He's really an American-style manager; those who deliver, who do good work, are rewarded."

Born in 1960, Brito studied mechanical engineering in Rio de Janeiro and applied to several U.S. universities for a master's in business administration. He was accepted by several — but could not pay his way.

CONTINUED : "The people thing"

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