The Anheuser-Busch CEO whose bid to quell the backlash over Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney debacle came off as flat as a beer left out in the sun was a CIA spy handler before heading up the brewing behemoth.

Brendan Whitworth formerly worked as an officer in the CIA’s counterterrorism center, where he recruited and handled intel informants before becoming a private-sector executive, according to The Official Board. Whitworth has been roundly blasted over his statement Friday in response to Bud Light’s controversial decision to partner with Mulvaney, a transgender activist and social media influencer.

“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” Whitworth said in a statement Friday. “We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”

The statement contained no mea culpa and no mention of Mulvaney or the radical transgender ideology he espouses. Many beer drinkers have rejected Bud Light, once the nation’s most popular beer, with distributors complaining they can’t sell it and bartenders around the country saying no one orders it anymore.