Preserving the Past and Inspiring the Future: Jacqui Seargeant, Global Heritage Manager at Bacardi

As a family-owned business, Bacardi is proud of its 163-year legacy and the team dedicated to preserving the stories of its heritage brands. This Women’s Month, Bacardi spotlights the woman at the helm of this team, Jacqui Seargeant – Global Heritage Manager, as she describes her journey to this unique role in the spirits industry, her favorite pieces of the collections, and the person from the past she’d love to share a cocktail with.

What’s a day in the life like for you?

As the Global Heritage Manager for all of our history at Bacardi, no two days are the same; one day I may be preserving a collection of 100-year-old glass bottles from the early days of our company, or working with our marketing teams to find the best stories to represent our brands today. With collections across the globe including BACARDÍ rum in Miami, DEWAR’S Blended Scotch whisky in Scotland, MARTINI vermouth in Italy, and BÉNÉDICTINE Liqueur in France, the storytelling opportunities are endless. Across these sites we preserve more than 150,000 physical items. If you laid our archive shelving end to end, it would be more than 75 times the height of the Statue of Liberty – and that number continues to grow every day!

Recently I spent time at our company global headquarters in Bermuda, coordinating the restoration of a stunning 11-metre-long mural that depicts the tropical landscape of Cuba, the original home of Bacardi. Even after 25 years on the job, exciting new projects like this one pop up everyday thanks to the diversity and breadth of our brands and collections.

What inspires you about your role as an archivist?

As a student at Glasgow University, I fell in love with archives at the age of 21 because I could see they were forgotten worlds with traces of people and moments from the past, waiting to be rediscovered.

What are your favorite items in the collections?

I love the centuries-old handwritten documents and ledgers of our founders. As I read them, I can imagine the person sitting there, making their mark and recording the urgent business of the day. The handwriting is so frenetic that you just know these people were in a hurry to do business!

Our cocktail book collection is one of the oldest and largest in the world, where we can discover drinking trends of the day through cocktail recipes, bartender insights and even trace the origins of cocktails like the Cuba Libre, which was first mixed with BACARDÍ rum 125 years ago.

I also enjoy the various promotional items our brands have created over the years. Each tells us a story about social moments of the past – like beautiful glassware in the MARTINI collection that defined a generation of the Italian aperitivo time or one of the smallest items we might have: a branded silver toothpick for after your meal!

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

A former-archivist and friend of mine became a coach to help women unlock their confidence and achieve their potential. Each New Year on her podcast she challenges her listeners to set an intention for the year and to think about what we want from the year and focus on what is important to each of us. This year, I did just that – I created a plan for the year ahead from which I can chart progress and achievements in both my personal and professional life. I set targets to connect with friends I haven’t spoken to in a while, read authors I haven’t yet got around to, and sign up for new experiences and opportunities to step out of my comfort zone at work.

How do you pay it forward to other women?

One of the ways I give back to women in my company is by co-leading a Menopause awareness program at our Bacardi UK Supply site. Menopause can severely affect a woman’s time at work; according to the 2022 Biote Women in the Workplace Survey, nearly 1 in 5 women considered quitting or quit their jobs due to menopause symptoms. Our Bacardi program supports anyone going through it, boosts awareness of symptoms and solutions, and educates managers to better care for their teams. It should be a time of reinvention, not a time of crisis.

If you could enjoy a cocktail with any historical figure, who would it be and what would you ask?

I would love to share a glass of DEWAR’S with Una Cameron, the granddaughter of John Dewar, founder of DEWAR’S whisky.

I have a little book from her library ‘The Lore of the Wanderer’, which was given to me by her family, and it contains lots of amusing essays about nature and the outdoors. Una achieved a number of first ascents during the 1930s. She was an accomplished artist as well as a mountaineer – two pastimes close to my heart.

I imagine spending a day at her villa in Italy, in which we would go walking in the hills around Villa Cameron in the morning. I could ask her about her favourite mountaineering moments and memories of her Dewar family members and then spend the afternoon learning from her artistic expertise. She passed away in 1987, long before I even had a love of the mountains.

What’s your advice to other women leaders? 

I set a word for the year that I use to guide my intention and help me make decisions. This year my word is ‘appreciate’. For me, it is important to appreciate the everyday moments in life, to enjoy the very moment I’m in and not be wishing my days away!

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