Durante joined BAT's Brazilian subsidiary Souza Cruz in 1981. In January 2008, he was appointed BAT's
chief operating officer (COO), and in March 2011 became the company's first non-British CEO. During his initial tenure as CEO, BAT's shares began to climb in value, and had doubled in price by 2016. it appeared that Durante had misjudged the
FDA's attitude towards
menthol cigarettes, and that BAT had overpaid in the acquisition of the
Reynolds American tobacco company minority interest in July 2017. At the time, this amounted to the largest foreign investment ever made in a US firm, costing $49 billion and "creating the world's biggest listed tobacco company". In December 2023, the Reynolds American asset was impaired by BAT for $31m USD; concrete evidence of the over payment when Durante was at the helm of BAT. In 2015, Durante reportedly earned almost £8 million as CEO of BAT. In 2016, he asked for his salary to be raised to £10 million, claiming that he deserved another £2 million. His retirement came at a highly controversial time in the firm's history. In September 2022, it was announced that Durante had been appointed as temporary CEO of
Reckitt Benckiser, the Anglo-Dutch multinational
consumer goods company, after the unexpected resignation of former CEO
Laxman Narasimhan. Durante joined Reckitt's
board of directors in 2013, and was its senior independent director prior to becoming CEO. ==Personal life==