Naked Wines appoints regional MD as new CEO

Online wine retailer Naked Wines has appointed its UK managing director as its new chief executive after the abrupt departure of its former boss last November.

Rodrigo Maza, who has been leading the UK division since September 2023, has been appointed as the CEO designate, and will join the board with immediate effect.

Maza will work with executive chair Rowan Gormley over the next several months to ensure a successful transition, the company said, after which he will assume the group CEO role permanently and Gormley will resume his previous role as non-executive chair.

"We are delighted to welcome Maza as CEO designate," Gormley said. "In his short time with us he has proven his ability to energise his team to get Naked back on the growth path, and his previous experience has a compelling combination of entrepreneurial startups and big company best practice, both of which we are going to need."

The appointment comes just three months after Naked Wines got rid of their former CEO Nick Devlin following a profit warning on the back of weaker-than-expected trading in the US.

At the time, Gormley said the shortfall was "largely to do with execution", which was largely due to Devlin splitting his time across both the role of CEO and US president.