Twelve-year Diageo veteran Simon Tilden has left the drinks giant, The Drum can reveal.

Tilden joined Diageo’s global marketing procurement team in 2006, leading its advertising procurement.

According to LinkedIn, his last two years in the team saw him focused on developing marketing productivity strategies to deliver in excess of £100m in annual marketing reinvestment savings.

Before Diageo, Tilden worked agency-side, serving in a variety of media planning and account management roles at Saatchi & Saatchi, D’Arcy Masius Benton and McCann.

A spokesperson for Diageo declined to comment on Tilden’s departure. It is thought that he leaves without another role to go to.

Tilden's exit comes amid a flurry of changes within Diageo’s marketing and innovation teams in the UK.

Earlier this year, global head of digital media partnerships Jerry Daykin departed for GlaxoSmithKline to become its media director for EMEA.

However, amid the exits Diageo has also hired VCCP’s innovation lead, Will Harvey.

Diageo confirmed that Harvey will join its European tech and innovation team but declined to reveal his specific role.

Harvey spent nearly four years at VCCP. Prior to that he was at Ogilvy for four years.

Reporting by Jen Faull and Stephen Lepitak