Matthew J. Shattock

Matthew J “Matt” Shattock is a businessperson who has been the CEO of 5 different Fortune 500 companies. From March 2009 to December 2020, Shattock was President of Jim Beam Brands. In 2014, Matt successfully led the complex integration between the Japanese Suntory Corp. and the American Jim Beam Brands to create the third-largest spirits conglomerate in the world, now known as Beam-Suntory.

Part of the success of the $16 billion merger, says Matt, is “The great American export story that is bourbon,” or put more bluntly, the Japanese unabashed love of America’s native spirit. After all, Beam sold more than 8 million bottles of its flagship bourbon in Japan the year before the alliance. As to the ‘East-Meets-West Phenomenon,’  as Matt called it, the merger of the two companies was not as fraught with cultural peril as some expected. “We’d had the opportunity to get to know Suntory through a distribution arrangement and consolidate our brands into their organization as Beam’s distributor in Japan, so it gave us a chance to get to know them, ” said Shattock. It turns out the two companies had much in common, the biggest similarity being that both proud, traditional enterprises were formed from multigenerational living family legacies.

A former tank commander in the British Army where he served as a Captain, Shattock is a 1983 graduate of the University of Durham in the UK, and it is there that his family has generously bestowed several full scholarships for deserving students. A native Brit, Shattock worked at the huge American corporations Fortune Brands, Cadbury, and Unilever before joining Beam.

Shattock left Beam-Suntory in April of 2019 and has served on the boards as Chairman or Director at several public companies since that time. At the Clorox Company, Matt was elected to the board in July 2018. He has served as Lead Independent Director at Clorox beginning in January 2024 and was the Independent Chairman from 2021 to 2023. During that time, he also served as Chairman of Domino's Pizza Group (UK) from March 2020 to April 2025.

Matt, now 63, is married to Sue. The Shattocks met in Los Angeles during a 1998 dinner party. They have three children and split their time between homes in the Chicago area of the United States and Slough, United Kingdom. Though Matt is no longer with Beam-Suntory, the soft-spoken Brit still cites his favorite drink as Jim Beam Black with ginger ale.

Excellent choice, sir!

Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee