The Coca-Cola Company announced a series of leadership changes to accelerate digital transformation and strengthen regional focus, with all appointments effective March 31. The Atlanta-based beverage company established a new chief digital officer position and reorganized market leadership in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Sedef Salingan Sahin, currently president of Coca-Cola’s Eurasia and Middle East operating unit, will serve as the company’s first chief digital officer. She will report to Henrique Braun, who becomes CEO on March 31, succeeding James Quincey. Quincey will continue as executive chairman of the board following the previously announced transition.
“We believe our ongoing growth depends on understanding consumers even more deeply,” Braun said. “We are evolving our operating organization structure and elevating digital leadership so we can move faster and work smarter across all markets.”
Digital strategy consolidation
The chief digital officer role consolidates digital, data and operational excellence initiatives spread across the organization. Digital strategy efforts, overseen by John Murphy in his capacity as president and chief financial officer, will transition to Sahin.
Sahin joined Coca-Cola in 2003 and previously served as president of the company’s nutrition, juice, dairy and plant category in the marketing organization. Both roles involved extensive digitization work, including transformation of the marketing organization. She has operating experience across developed and developing markets, having lived in multiple regions.
“The chief digital officer position is a pivotal new role for our future,” Braun said.
“Sedef’s proven leadership will help shape how we digitalize the enterprise end-to-end, and over the next several months she will assess how to organize the teams responsible for digital across the enterprise to help strengthen execution, simplify how we work and enable us to deliver for consumers with greater precision and speed.”
The appointment builds on Coca-Cola’s current AI and technology initiatives. The company signed a five-year, $1.1 billion strategic deal with Microsoft in 2024 to pilot Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot for Microsoft 365 across operations, cementing Microsoft as Coca-Cola’s globally preferred strategic cloud and AI platform provider.
“We know there’s upside on the marketing side, we know the sales system enabled by the AI produces higher revenue – connecting the two will take us to a different place,” Quincey said during a December investor conference.
Regional restructuring
Coca-Cola also created two new market groupings designed to enhance focus on Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The reorganization aims to help the company respond more nimbly to dynamic market conditions and capture growth potential in high-opportunity regions.
Sanket Ray will oversee the India and Southwest Asia operating unit and lead emerging large markets covering India, Southwest Asia, Greater China and Mongolia, and Japan and South Korea, while continuing as president of INSWA.
Claudia Lorenzo will oversee the Eurasia and Middle East operating unit and lead emerging multi-markets, covering Eurasia and the Middle East, ASEAN and South Pacific, and Africa, while serving as president of EME.
“These changes are intended to help equip our organization to handle the dynamic conditions we are seeing in markets around the world,” Braun said. “Sanket and Claudia bring deep regional experience and established leadership, which will be critical as we seek to tap into the immense growth potential we see across the markets they will lead.”
Commercial Leadership Shift
Customer and commercial leadership duties will move from Murphy to EVP and CMO Manolo Arroyo, who will become EVP and chief marketing and customer commercial officer. Murphy remains president and CFO, overseeing core corporate functions.
Robin Halpern, currently VP and head of investor relations, has been named Braun’s incoming chief of staff. In this capacity, Halpern will support and enable an effective transition.
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