It's a good thing Justin Adams isn't afraid of a challenge, because he's certainly faced a few over the years.
Just days into his previous job as managing director of Maxxium, bosses at the UK's second-largest spirits marketing and distribution company announced they had pulled off the deal of the year - exclusive rights to distribute Absolut
vodka. The contract brought case-loads of kudos and a chance for the company - which was previously reliant on whisky - to move into new territory.
It was 2001 and Adams was at the helm of Maxxium's fast-moving, dynamic UK operation that, in just 18 months, was turning over £155m and employed 150 people.
He welcomed news of the Absolut deal and seemed to thrive on the pressure of running a business dominated by whisky when the market was in steep decline. In his typical direct manner, he was quoted as saying: "I wouldn't have taken this job if it revolved around managing the decline of the spirits business."
One of biggest jobs in UK brewing Five years later, stepping into one of the biggest jobs in UK brewing, where industry sales are down 5% year on year, if he was asked why he had accepted the role he probably would have given a similar answer.
In a strange case of history repeating itself, Adams' first day as managing director of Greene King Brewing last September came within days of the Suffolk brewer snapping up Belhaven for £187m - another much-envied coup.
And the day we meet to discuss his plans for the future, Greene King has just won the battle for Hardys & Hansons. At this stage, Adams is tight-lipped about the deal, although he finds it difficult to hide his irrepressible enthusiasm. "Hardys & Hansons is fantastically exciting - it will enable us to expand our footprint and re-attack the north in a new way."
Pushing GK beers in Scotland Assimilating the newly acquired brands into his portfolio and devising ways to push Greene King's existing beers throughout Scotland, and now the north of England, will be an exciting prospect for someone with Adams' proven track record in marketing.
"I've been an ale drinker all my life," he says, studying his pint of IPA, "apart from a brief interlude when I was wooed into the world of Guinness." Before joining Maxxium, Adams was managing director of Guinness Germany, where he lived just outside Dusseldorf with his wife and young children.
The role exposed him to a company that put quality first and used imaginative marketing to turn around stout's fortunes, bringing it back into favour after a sluggish period in the '80s. He admits this could be valuable knowledge to draw on in real ale's current climate. "By the '90s, people had a better idea of why Guinness was relevant to them. I am probably stealing a bit from my previous employer," he laughs.
The perspective Adams brings to the sector seems to breathe new life into issues that have historically held it back. "Coming fresh into this industry, I'm amazed at how many people are prepared to predict the death of real ale. If we can make cask ale popular and relevant again there's room for everyone, and we feel excited to be part of that movement."
Greene King's involvement with six other leading brewers to develop the Why Handpull? think-tank on beer drinkers and ways of broadening ale's appeal are key to the company's strategy for the category.
But Adams has his own agenda for Greene King and upgrading the quality and perception of beer. "I want to build the best beer business in Britain. We don't necessarily want to be the biggest, but we do want to be the best. It's the same vision Rooney Anand had when he was running it and it's a pretty good vision to have.
Adams says he wants to accelerate the plans Anand put in place, but is clearly keen to make his own mark, and talks frankly about his views.
"Having more pumps on the bar isn't the way forward," he says. "Don't get me wrong - I'd like us to be in as many outlets as possible, but because of our reputation as the beacon of quality. Consumers want choice and flavour, but not if it means sacrificing quality.
"It's about getting the message across about temperature, conditioning the beer for long enough and serving it correctly in suitable glassware. It's also about drinking our heritage - it's British. Lager isn't and neither is wine."
Ambassador for quality message Adams takes the quality issue so seriously he carries his own thermometer around, measuring the temperature of his pint at the bar unapologetically. And he eventually wants to ensure that everyone from Greene King is an ambassador for his quality message.
"Quality is critical because a perfectly served drink - like a pint of Guinness - looks great. And quality also pays off for the licensee because 50% of people who get a bad pint will leave the pub. That's a lot of profit to lose. Consumers are very unforgiving."
You don't buy what you can't see For Adams, quality and presentation go hand-in-hand. "No disrespect to the other suppliers such as Coca-Cola and Guinness, but handpulled beer is not as visible on the bar. Some would say that's good because it's more traditional, but you don't buy what you can't see.
"A large proportion of the success of extra-cold beer comes from the fact that the fonts look good and make people want to drink it - not the temperature. It's about how we get more share of voice at the bar and stimulate people to drink ale."
Adams accepts that getting greater exposure is also about proving ale's relevance to a pub's bottom line, adding that closing the difference in price between lager and cask ale, plus educating consumers to expect to pay more, could achieve this.
"As a cask ale drinker all these years, I've been getting a great deal and didn't know it because I've been paying less for quality ale than for a lager. It's good for the consumer but not for the pub trying to make enough margin. I don't want to rip people off, but we're talking about a product that has received conditioning and care in the outlet - in any other industry you would expect to pay more for it."
He promises that Greene King has some exciting plans to communicate those quality cues to consumers and get them to engage with cask ale.
"A comedian can't stand up in front of an audience and say 'I'm funny, laugh' - it's the same with ale. We need to find another way to motivate licensees and customers so that they can appreciate it more."