Mauricio Leyva Becomes First Colombian CEO of 7-Eleven North America
Colombia places another executive at the head of a global consumer giant, as Mauricio Leyva Arboleda takes over as chief executive officer of 7-Eleven, Inc. starting August 1, 2026, stepping into a role that puts him in charge of the convenience store chain’s entire North American operation.
Seven & i Holdings, the Japanese parent company that owns 7-Eleven, made the appointment official after months of speculation following Joseph DePinto’s departure, who had led the company for more than two decades before stepping down at the end of last year.
That vacancy left Seven & i searching for someone capable of reversing sluggish growth and reigniting innovation across a brand approaching its hundredth anniversary, and the company ultimately bet on an executive whose resume never once touched the convenience retail sector.
Mauricio Leyva’s career before becoming 7-Eleven CEO
Leyva earned his stripes across decades in the beverage and consumer goods industry rather than in convenience retail, a background that makes his selection somewhat unconventional given the operational challenges awaiting him. He spent more than a decade climbing through Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, eventually running Grupo Modelo in Mexico, where he helped scale Modelorama into one of the country’s largest convenience store chains, giving him at least indirect exposure to the retail format he now oversees at a much larger scale.
From there, Leyva served briefly as chief executive of the Mexican dairy company Grupo Lala before joining Keurig Dr Pepper in 2020, first as president of international and business development and later as group president, a role in which he guided the beverage company through a complex post-merger integration that helped push Dr Pepper into second place among carbonated soft drink brands in the United States. Most recently, Leyva worked as a senior advisor at McKinsey & Company, consulting for the firm’s retail and consumer goods practice before Seven & i approached him for the top job.
Mauricio Leyva’s challenges as CEO of 7-Eleven North America
Leyva now faces one of the more demanding executive assignments in American retail, since 7-Eleven operates roughly 80.000 stores across 19 countries, and Seven & i has tasked him specifically with modernizing more than 7.000 locations while restoring profitability to a business that has struggled to keep pace with changing consumer habits. Complicating matters further, Leyva steps into this role with an initial public offering still looming in the background, since Seven & i delayed that planned spinoff of its North American convenience business earlier this year, leaving Leyva to manage both day-to-day operations and the pressure of preparing the company for that future market debut.
His mandate, as Seven & i defined it publicly, centers on elevating the customer experience, strengthening the store network, advancing operational excellence, and driving sustainable, profitable growth, objectives that will require him to apply everything he learned turning around beverage brands to an entirely different kind of retail business. Leyva studied business administration at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia before pursuing postgraduate studies in France and executive education at Stanford and Oxford, an academic path that now culminates in leading one of the most recognizable retail brands in the United States, and one more example of a Colombian executive reaching the very top of global business.