Paul C. Varga

Paul C. Varga is an American businessman from Louisville, Kentucky, and a director of Churchill Downs Incorporated. He joined the board in 2020 and serves on its Audit Committee and Compensation Committee. He is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brown-Forman Corporation, a public global spirits and wine company.

Varga attended St. Xavier High School in Louisville, graduating in 1981. He gained a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Kentucky in 1985 and an MBA from Purdue University in 1987.

He began his career as a summer intern at Brown-Forman in May 1986 and worked in Chicago, Southern California, Nashville and Louisville. From 2000 to 2003 he was Global Chief Marketing Officer for Brown-Forman Spirits. He joined the Brown-Forman board of directors in 2003 and from 2003 to 2005 was President and Chief Executive Officer of Brown-Forman Beverages, a division of the company. He became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brown-Forman in August 2007 and held both roles until he retired in December 2018. He left the Brown-Forman board in July 2019.

Churchill Downs describes his expertise as covering corporate finance, strategy, brand building, product development, marketing, distribution and sales, together with long experience as a chief executive and public company director.

Varga has been a director of Macy's, Inc. since March 2012, where he chairs the Compensation and Management Development Committee and sits on the Finance Committee. Other activities listed in the sources include past service on the boards of the Muhammad Ali Center and the Louisville Urban League. He has also served on the executive committee of Greater Louisville Inc. and on the boards of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the YMCA of Louisville and Three Chimneys Farm, a thoroughbred breeding farm in Midway, Kentucky.