Unleash Your Spirit: Emmanuel Anoma

12 February 2021

Meet Emmanuel Anoma – Associate Marketing Manager – Multicultural, Japanese whisky collector and proud owner of a Blackberry phone.

“I’m a huge Blackberry advocate… to this day I still own one,” said Anoma.

He is all about presentation. With a warm and friendly personality, he constantly has a smile on his face while sporting stylish suits and a luxury watch to match.

A Chicago native, he’s always had a knack for relationship building that dates back to high school, when he was voted class president every year, and eventually became prom king.

While working on his sports management degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Anoma was a manager of then top-ranked basketball team, and cultivated relationships with future NBA stars.

“I always had a business-focused mindset going back to my paper route days,” Anoma said, in addition to his people skills.

In his role with Beam Suntory, Anoma is responsible for connecting the company’s portfolio with diverse consumers. To do so, he’s led and executed many events involving art, culture, sports and entertainment. A couple that stand out to him include connecting Asian consumers with Courvoisier L’Essence at a dinner party in Chicago. He also partners with the Black Bourbon Society to help connect Black consumers with bourbon.

“I knew I could curate events and create spaces to bring people together,” Anoma said. “Once I realized I could do that for corporations, I knew I could pair diverse culture with brands in many ways.”

In 2020, Anoma helped lead and execute events to capitalize on NBA All Star weekend being held in Chicago.

“Over three days, we hosted seven events that our biggest brands sponsored,” he said. “It was a great way to show how Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, House of Suntory and Courvoisier can authentically connect with multicultural consumers.”

Anoma is also committed to supporting Beam Suntory’s efforts in Diversity & Inclusion (D&I). He is a member of the North America D&I Council, a governing body established to drive focus, share best practices and support the launch and expansion of D&I resources, namely, Employee Impact Groups (EIGs). He is also a key contributor to BOLD, Beam Suntory’s Black EIG.

A middle child of three boys, Anoma looks up to his parents, who have been together and married his whole life.

“They served as great examples for my brothers and I growing up, making sure we prioritized education, worked hard to earn a living and treated people with respect.”

You can learn more about how Beam Suntory employees are “Unleashing Their Spirit” around the world in our people profile series.