• Brendan Whitworth, 46, joined Anheuser-Busch in 2013 and worked his way up to become CEO in July 2021
• He studied at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, intending to follow in his doctor father's footsteps, but joined the Marines in 1998 and served three years
• Whitworth joined the CIA in 2001, working to recruit and handle spies in DC, Pakistan, Tunisia and Iraq before going to Harvard Business School

When the CEO of Anheuser-Busch interviews prospective recruits to the world's biggest brewing conglomerate, he has a favorite question.

'Tell me about a time that you didn't succeed or things didn't go as planned,' he likes to ask.

If Brendan Whitworth ever finds himself asked the same question, he now has plenty of material to draw on.

Whitworth, 46, has seen his biggest brand - Bud Light - engulfed in a firestorm of controversy since they teamed up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on April 1.

Mulvaney was issued with her own special-edition can of the beer to mark her year of transitioning from male to female: a move that enraged Bud Light drinkers, and saw $6 billion knocked off the value of Anheuser-Busch. Factories across the United States were even hit with bomb threats amid the furore.

Brendan Whitworth, 46, has been the CEO of Anheuser-Busch since July 2021. His company is now in the middle of a firestorm over their decision to partner with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney 

Whitworth on Friday issued a statement declaring: 'We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.

'We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.'

The decision to team up with Mulvaney was reportedly made by a low-level marketing executive, but that has not stopped Whitworth and his vice president of marketing for Bud Light, Alissa Heinerscheid, from facing a torrent of criticism.

Yet few are better positioned to draw on a lifetime of challenging situations than Whitworth - an 'all American hero' and trainee doctor who joined the Marines - where he was a star athlete - and the CIA, recruiting and handling spies across the Middle East, before going to Harvard Business School.

Whitworth has lived across the United States, and has been a registered Republican for most of his life. 

'I felt fortunate to have been born in the United States,' he said. 'I felt like I needed to pay that back - like I had a bit of indebtedness that I needed to pay.'

Whitworth grew up in the Alapocas Woods area just outside Wilmington, Delaware - the son of a doctor, Michael Whitworth, and his wife Sara.

He attended Salesianum School, a Catholic high school in Wilmington, and graduated in 1994, having led the school soccer team to win the state championship. He was also fiendishly academic, earning straight As in honors pre-calculus.