This story appears in the
January 2026
issue of
Entrepreneur.
Beer is a brutal business, and Dolf van den Brink learned the hard way. Heineken announced that its CEO will step down May 31 after nearly six years leading the world’s second-largest beer maker. Van den Brink “arrived with high expectations, but Heineken has not delivered on them,” RBC Capital Markets analyst James Edwardes Jones told Reuters.
Van den Brink took the job in June 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and presided over a turbulent period marked by massive cost inflation, falling sales, declining margins and a battered share price.
Van den Brink is the latest CEO casualty. Brewers have struggled to sell more beer, with hopes of a sales revival repeatedly knocked off course by bad weather, political uncertainty and shifting attitudes toward drinking among younger people. The rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic could further dampen food and drink sales. Heineken’s board will now search for a successor.
Beer is a brutal business, and Dolf van den Brink learned the hard way. Heineken announced that its CEO will step down May 31 after nearly six years leading the world’s second-largest beer maker. Van den Brink “arrived with high expectations, but Heineken has not delivered on them,” RBC Capital Markets analyst James Edwardes Jones told Reuters.
Van den Brink took the job in June 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and presided over a turbulent period marked by massive cost inflation, falling sales, declining margins and a battered share price.
Van den Brink is the latest CEO casualty. Brewers have struggled to sell more beer, with hopes of a sales revival repeatedly knocked off course by bad weather, political uncertainty and shifting attitudes toward drinking among younger people. The rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic could further dampen food and drink sales. Heineken’s board will now search for a successor.
