AB InBev Just Made a Snacks CEO Its Chairman: Why the World's Biggest Brewer Hired Mondelez's Dirk Van de Put

The world's biggest brewer just picked a new chairman. He does not brew beer. He sells Oreos and Cadbury.

A snacks boss for a beer company

On 16 June 2026, Anheuser-Busch InBev named Dirk Van de Put as the chair of its board. Van de Put is the chairman and chief executive of Mondelez, one of the largest snack companies on earth. He has sat on AB InBev's board since April 2023. He now takes the top board seat from Martin Barrington, who retired in April. A man who built his career on snacks now chairs the company that makes Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois.

On paper it looks odd. Beer and biscuits are different trades. But look closer and the choice makes sense. AB InBev is not really hunting for someone who knows how to brew. It already has that. It wants someone who knows how to sell to people whose habits are changing fast.

Beer is shrinking, and the brewer knows it

The hard numbers explain the move. In 2025, AB InBev's total volumes fell 2.3%. Beer volumes alone dropped 2.6%. People in rich countries are simply drinking less beer. Younger adults drink less than their parents did. Health worries, weight-loss drugs and tighter budgets all pull the same way.

So the company is chasing growth somewhere else. Its "beyond beer" range, which includes seltzers and canned cocktails, grew revenue 23% in 2025 and now makes up about 3% of sales. Its no-alcohol beer grew revenue 34%, led by Corona Cero. The growth is coming from drinks that barely existed a decade ago.

Why a snacking brain fits

This is where a snacks leader earns his seat. Mondelez does not win by making the cheapest biscuit. It wins by owning the moment: the break, the treat, the reward. AB InBev now needs the same trick with drinks. A no-alcohol beer at lunch. A canned cocktail at a party. A premium lager as a small luxury.

The company already spends like a brand business, not a factory. It put $7.4bn into sales and marketing in 2025. That is the budget of a company selling feelings, not just litres. Van de Put has run exactly that kind of business for years.

His real skill: small, smart deals

There is a second reason the board wanted him. Van de Put is known for bolt-on deals: buying small, fast-growing brands and feeding them through a giant sales machine. Mondelez did this again and again with better-for-you and premium snack brands.

AB InBev may need that same playbook. The future of drinks is messy and broken into pieces, full of small no-alcohol, functional and ready-to-drink brands. A chairman who is happy buying and scaling little brands is a useful person to have when the next big category is still tiny. A strong start to 2026 helps the case: underlying earnings per share rose 20.8% in the first quarter, to $0.97.

What the board is really telling you

A chairman does not run the company day to day. Michel Doukeris is still chief executive. But who a board picks to lead it is a signal. It tells you what skills the company thinks it will need next. AB InBev just told the market it values consumer brands and deal-making over brewing tradition.

For investors and operators, the read-across is wider than beer. Drinks and snacks are crashing into the same battleground: small moments, health-aware choices, and brands that own an occasion. The line between a snack company and a drinks company gets thinner every year. When the world's biggest brewer reaches into the snack aisle for its chairman, that line just got thinner still.