Miami, Florida-based Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits – a distributor of beverage alcohol – has made two commercial leadership appointments in its Mid-Atlantic and Control States regions, effective immediately.
In the Mid-Atlantic, Pat Pokorny has been named VP and general manager for Maryland and Washington, D.C., reporting to Scott Oppenheimer, president of the East Region for Southern Glazer’s. In this role, he will oversee sales and distribution activities including formulating overall strategy, managing and developing people, and establishing policies for both markets.
Succeeding Pokorny in his previous Southern Glazer’s role will be Kirt Clemens, who will serve as the new president of control states. In this new role, Clemens will lead the beverage alcohol control states – Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Montgomery County in Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. In this position, he reports to John Wittig, chief commercial officer for Southern Glazer’s.
Previous to his most recent roles, Pokorny was the EVP and general manager of Pennsylvania, responsible for the company’s performance in the state. Pokorny brings more than 20 years of experience in the beverage alcohol industry. Before joining Southern Glazer’s, he held the position of VP of the control state and military region for Moet Hennessy U.S.
Pokorny was VP of the Mid-Atlantic Region, Belvedere Vodka and National On-Premise. Before joining Moet Hennessy U.S., he held multiple roles of increasing responsibility in the Northeast and Western U.S. with Millennium Imports, Terlato Imports and Churchill Distributors.
Prior to Clemens’ newest appointment, he held the position of EVP and general manager, control states, East Region. Clemens has more than 30 years of experience in the beverage industry. Since joining Southern Glazer’s in 2006, he has held various commercial leadership roles of increasing responsibility.
Clemens previously served in various sales and operations roles with organizations such as Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines, Perrier Group of America and Pepsi-Cola.
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is the world’s preeminent distributor of beverage alcohol and is a multi-generational, family-owned company. The company has operations in 44 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Canada.
In 2021, Southern Glazer’s was selected as a U.S. Best Managed Company by Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal, as well as named by Newsweek as a Top 100 Most Loved Workplace.
For more information, visit southernglazers.com.
