August Busch IV

Infobox Person
name = August Busch IV


occupation = President and CEO, Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
birth_date = 1964
birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
death_date =
death_place =
spouse = Kathryn "Kate" Thatcher
parents =August Busch III and Susan Busch
children =

August Anheuser Busch IV (born 1964) is the great-great-grandson of Anheuser-Busch founder Adolphus Busch, the son of former chairman, president and CEO August Busch III. On December 1, 2006, he succeeded Patrick Stokes, who held the positions of president and CEO of the company since July 2002. [cite news | author=Associated Press | title=A Busch Retakes the Reins | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/business/28beer.html| work=The New York Times | date=28 September 2006 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]

Busch is known by industry insiders as "The Fourth".

Leadership at Anheuser-Busch

On September 27, 2006, Anheuser-Busch also announced the election of Busch as a member of the Board of Directors effective September 27, 2006. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors since December 1, 2006.

He is the fifth generation of Busch family members to lead the company. Patrick Stokes has been named chairman of the board, effective December 1, 2006, succeeding August A. Busch III. Stokes had succeeded August III in his current positions. Stokes' tenure from June 2002 to November 30, 2006 marked the first time in the history of the company that a non-Busch family member ran the day to day operations.

In April 2008, Mr. Busch told beer distributors that Anheuser-Busch would never be bought "on my watch." On July 13th, 2008, he signed off on the sale of Anheuser to InBev, ending 150 years of family control [ [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121608697120353241.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace Free Preview - WSJ.com ] ] .

Former role

Busch served as president of the company's brewing subsidiary, Anheuser-Busch, Incorporated, prior to his promotion and had previously served as its Group Vice President-Marketing and Wholesale Operations (2000-2002). He was Vice President and Group Executive of the Company and had served in such capacity since 2000. He has been an officer of the company since 1996.

He continues to serve on the boards of Anheuser-Busch and FedEx.

Move to the top

Busch moved to marketing in 1989. His first brand-management assignment was on a new beer, Bud Dry, which was a commercial failure.

He redeemed himself with Budweiser. The world's biggest beer brand (22 percent of industry sales in the U.S.), Budweiser is also the main tap for Anheuser-Busch's profits. Budweiser sales topped out in 1990, however, as young drinkers were switching to imports and microbrews. Bud, according to twentysomethings commentary in surveys, was the beer parents drink, in cans, at the bowling alley in Sheboygan. Busch told his father that Bud sales would grow only if they revamped the beer's image. "There was a culture weaved into the Budweiser brand," he said. "No one wanted to change it." His idea was to take Budweiser off its pedestal and move it onto "the toadstool".

Busch was one of the earliest supporters of the Budweiser frogs advertising campaign. The Budweiser frog campaign, produced by DDB Needham, was the No. 1 favorite of TV viewers, according to Video Storyboard Tests, which surveyed 4,000 consumers quarterly. Busch's father initially opposed the campaign; he later admitted "I've lost the ability to understand the 21- to 30-year-olds the way I used to." [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1997/01/13/220882/index.htm BUD-WEIS-HEIR AUGUST BUSCH IV IS REBELLIOUS, RISK-TAKING-AND (NEARLY) READY TO RULE THE WORLD'S LARGEST BREWER. - January 13, 1997 ] ]

Education and early career

After graduating in 1982 from Parkway West High School in city-state|Ballwin|Missouri, August Busch IV studied as an undergraduate at University of Arizona. He holds both a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree "magna cum laude" in finance from Saint Louis University. He has a brewmaster’s degree from the International Brewing Institute in Berlin.

After graduating from Saint Louis University in the mid-1980s, he was required to follow in his father's footsteps, starting at the bottom of Anheuser-Busch. He worked as a brewing apprentice in the Old Malt House as a union member of Brewers & Maltsters Local 6 in St. Louis, Missouri, as an intern in the Culture Yeast Center, and later as a foreman in packaging and shipping operations. His father reached out to his corps of German brewmasters to train and mentor him, including —

*Gerhardt A. Kraemer, Group Vice President for Global Brewing
*Dr. Klaus D. Zastrow, Vice-President for Brewing Technical Services
*Dr. Heinrich K. Heissinger, Vice-President for Brewing Operations
*Dr. Herbert Hindelang, Vice President for Corporate Quality Assurance
*Carl Adam, Group Director, Brewing Operations for 13 U.S. Breweries
*Heinrich W. Schmid, Senior Manager for Culture Yeast Science

Background

Busch's parents divorced when he was five and he lived with his mother. His time with his father was mostly at the brewery and their relationship was, for the most part, professional.Kosmodel, David, "Anheuser CEO Fight for His Legacy," "Wall Street Journal", A1, May 272008]

August A. Busch IV holds advanced black belt degrees in the martial arts disciplines of Judo, Tae-Kwon-Do and Hapkido. Like his grandfather, Gussie Busch, he is a supporter of Democratic Party politics at the local, state, and national level and champions a variety of social causes.

He is married to the former Kathryn "Kate" Thatcher, and resides in St. Louis County, Missouri. As of 2007, the couple have no children.

Run-ins with the law

In 1983, while attending the University of Arizona, Busch was involved in a car wreck that killed a young woman riding with him in his Corvette. [Beer Blast!, book by Philip Munchen, 1998] According to Tucson police, Busch had left a bar early one morning and wrecked his vehicle while making a sharp turn at high speed. His passenger, a local waitress, flew through the sunroof, and was killed in the accident. Busch left the scene of the accident without informing the police. Police found him at his Tucson townhouse eight hours later with blood still on his body. Manslaughter charges against Busch were eventually dropped after evidence (blood and urine taken from Busch the day of the accident) was lost or damaged .

Busch was arrested again in 1985 after leading police on a high-speed car chase. He was accused of intentionally trying to run over two officers with his Mercedes. He was acquitted by a St. Louis jury.

Soon after, he was found guilty of another speeding violation, and received a one-year probation.

References

Further reading

*"Forbes"; March 3, 2006
*"Business Week"; November 11, 2002
*"Fortune Magazine"; January 13, 1997; "BUD-WEIS-HEIR August Busch IV is rebellious, risk-taking--and (nearly) ready to rule the world's largest brewer". [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1997/01/13/220882/index.htm]
*"Under the Influence: The Unauthorized Story of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty", Peter Hernon & Terry Ganey, Avon Books 1992