Tony Ponturo, Anheuser-Busch’s sports marketing guru, to retire
Tony Ponturo, Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of global media and sports marketing, will retire from the company on Dec. 31, Lager Heads has learned.
Ponturo has worked at the St. Louis-based brewer for 26 years, and has been recognized as one of the media and sports marketing industries’ top shot callers.
Ponturo, a native of New Jersey, worked at several ad agencies and at NBC before joining Anheuser-Busch in 1982. In the early 1990s, he made the dramatic move of bringing A-B’s media operation in-house. Ponturo gained global responsibilities in 1998, and has helped guide A-B’s investments in properties such as the Super Bowl and the Olympics.
Under Ponturo’s leadership, “Anheuser-Busch became a leading global sports and entertainment marketing powerhouse,” chief executive August A. Busch IV said in a message to employees today. ”Tony has been an invaluable resource to Anheuser-Busch and to me.”
In a two-sentence statement, Ponturo said: “I have had a great career at Anheuser-Busch. The timing was right to move on to the next thing and new adventures.”
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
The timing was right? Hah! That’s a good one. I really doubt he had much of a choice. He’s just one of the people who elected to take the retirement that AB offered. If hadn’t taken the retirement now, it would have been forced upon him as soon as InBev takes the helm. This guy wasn’t going anywhere for a few more years, otherwise.
“Anheuser-Busch became a leading global sports and entertainment marketing powerhouse,” This soon will read “AB WAS a leading global sports and entertainment marketing powerhouse” That 52 BILLION will have to come from somewhere.
Once a Great Company !!! but now just a cheap imitation of it’s former self
with thousands of loyal employee seeing if they will be kicked to the curb soon
The AB that all remember is LONG GONE NEVER TO RETURN (DEAD)
INBEV is here to stay and the area needs to support the company. The fat would have been cut even if there was not a sale.
Ponturo is a sports marketing genius. No way is he done. He would be a great catch for a conference or network. I am watching A-B call part in front of my eyes and it is not pretty.
All I have been reading is how the workers are getting the shaft. How many years have the workers been giving AB the shaft? All of you should go to the nearest cheese shop and buy some cheese to go along with your whine.
It’s always the companies fault isn’t it. That big new contract that you just signed was nothing more than a going away gift. With the reduction of staffing that is where the money is coming from. So those of you that are left after the dust settles you can thank someone that was forced to retire.
Have a great day and remember thank your self.
Believe me…he is not hurting. He is retiring a multi millionnaire many times over. He also got the company to move him back east before he retired. Please….dont shed any tears for Tony.
He’s not going to be the last one. By the time Brito and his arrogant, penny-pushing henchmen finish the year, count on more upper management leaving. Brito really believes InBev can run AB better than AB ever did and puts no stock in any of the executives like Ponturo or Lackey (sic?).
InBev knows how to sell beer in Europe but is in for a rude awakening in the US. Brito’s henchmen will gut the company and replace many long time seasoned workers with young, inexperienced, just-out-of-college kids. They’ll work them hard for little pay and stockholders will wonder, at the end of the day, why things went so wrong. I’ll bet there will be a major shake up at InBev in 5-7 years after ABI has been run into the ground with a huge loss in market share.
Oh, and enjoy the Superbowl spots this year…they’ll be few and far between next year.
The Brazilian Brito has said that he has no regard for more than 200 people within his entire organization. Perhaps he is right, but he is betting 52 billion that he is correct.
I have worked for a Brazilian company. The Brazilian mentality is to run cheap and lean. They do not understand American workers and they certainly dont understand American methods of marketing. Brito will bring in a staff of low paid, young workers. Give them the promise of great futures and loose them slowly as they realize that they will never reach the carrot.
However, the real bad guy in this entire deal is August III. He is the person who allowed the brewery to become vulnerable to outside buyers. Why did AB not work to become so expensive they could not be purchased. Who was at the helm for the past 10+ years