Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev SA appointed the head of its North American business as its new chief executive, tapping a company veteran to reinvigorate sales growth and lead it out of the pandemic.

The beer giant said Thursday that Michel Doukeris would take the helm on July 1, replacing longtime CEOCarlos Brito, who has built the company into the world’s largest brewer during his more than 15 years in the job.

Mr. Brito’s departure signals the end of an era for the beer industry in which the world’s largest brewers embarked on buying sprees that spanned the globe, squeezing more profit out of sluggish developed markets and pushing deeper into faster-growing emerging economies. AB InBev now sells more than a quarter of the world’s beer.

However, that business model is now being challenged as consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere switch from mainstream lagers to craft beers, wine and spirits. AB InBev is also contending with uncertainty from the pandemic and a huge debt pile from its $100 billion-plus acquisition of rival SABMiller in 2016.

AB InBev Chairman Marty Barrington said Mr. Doukeris’s record in innovation, consumer insights and brand building in various markets made him the right man for the job.