Lucia Caruso Spinks steps into people director position at Heineken Beverages

Sphumelele Khumalo 03 March 2026

Lucia Caruso Spinks has started a new position as people director at Heineken Beverages.

In her new role, she will oversee the people function across the company’s South African operations.

Before this appointment, Lucia served as HR director at Red Bull in South Africa. Prior to this, she was the chief people officer at Nando’s after progressing from the role of head of HR.

Her earlier career includes several roles at Pick n Pay as senior HR manager for talent, senior HR manager for operational projects, corporate HR manager for inland shared services and national HR manager for franchise.

She also held multiple roles at Smollan for Unilever Channel Management as HR operations manager, HR initiatives manager, HR officer and HR assistant.

In addition, Lucia served as a part-time lecturer at the University of Johannesburg.

Academically, Lucia holds a master’s in leadership in performance and change management, an honours in industrial psychology, as well as a bachelor’s in psychology and industrial psychology.

Sphumelele Khumalo

Sphumelele Khumalo is the senior writer for CHRO South Africa. With a background in health journalism, she brings a passion for storytelling and an interest in exploring the human side of every story, one word at a time. When she’s not meeting deadlines, you might find her experimenting in the kitchen, or chasing sunsets.

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