By raising its long-standing chief executive Mackay to chairman, SAB Miller was widely considered to have breached City convention and traditional
corporate governance practices, which do not allow a chief executive to become chairman without a good explanation. Corporate governance codes also discourage the chairman being a full-time executive, as Mackay will be for a year. Mackay joined
South African Breweries in 1978. He was appointed group managing director in 1997 and chief executive of South African Breweries plc upon its 1999 London Stock Exchange listing. Mackay was the senior independent non-executive director of
Reckitt Benckiser Group plc and a director of
Philip Morris International Inc. ==Personal life and death==