Jury sides with Anheuser-Busch in gender discrimination case

Former Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (NYSE: BED) executive Francine Katz felt she was the victim of gender discrimination at the St. Louis company.

A jury did not.

After 10 hours of deliberation, the jury sided with Anheuser-Busch, saying the brewery did not discriminate on basis of gender.

The St. Louis Business Journal reports Katz, 56, once the company’s top-ranking female executive, filed a lawsuit in 2009 alleging she earned less than her male counterparts on A-B’s top strategy committee. Her lawyers asked jurors to award her $9.4 million in back pay plus $4.9 million in interest, and an undetermined amount of punitive damages. Katz’s lawyers said she earned less than half of her male predecessor.

Katz made roughly $1 million starting in 2002, when she was promoted to vice president of communications; her predecessor made $4.5 million, according to the journal.

Read more from the St. Louis Business Journal.