KO Coca Cola Company

By Jennifer Maloney and Micah Maidenberg 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 19, 2018).

Coca-Cola Co. boss James Quincey shuffled his management team, promoting a company veteran into the vacant No. 2 role and disclosing the retirement of the company's finance chief.

The Atlanta-based company said Thursday that Brian Smith will become chief operating officer and president on Jan. 1. Mr. Smith, a 21-year Coca-Cola employee, currently serves as president of the company's Europe, Middle East and Africa unit.

Mr. Smith, 62 years old, will oversee global operations. Mr. Quincey, who took over as chief executive and president in May 2017, said in an interview the move will allow him to focus more on big-picture issues.

Mr. Quincey hadn't named a No. 2 executive since taking over leadership from Muhtar Kent, who remains Coke's chairman. Under Mr. Quincey, 53, the company has been further diversifying away from its soda roots, mostly notably with a $5.1 billion deal to acquire the Costa Coffee chain, a competitor to Starbucks Corp.

"We've got a lot of things to do," Mr. Quincey said, noting the takeover of Costa. "We've expanded assertively into a series of categories....We need more capacity to execute." He said it was his idea -- not the board's -- to appoint a No. 2.

Mr. Smith joined Coca-Cola in 1997 and served as the head of the Brazil and Mexico divisions. He was president of the Latin America business for three years before being selected in 2016 for his current position running the Europe business.

Coca-Cola said its finance chief, Kathy Waller, will retire next year after spending more than three decades with the company. Ms. Waller, 60, took over as chief financial officer in 2014. John Murphy, Coca-Cola's president for its Asia Pacific group, will succeed her, starting in March.

Mr. Quincey said the changes bring the representation of women on Coca-Cola's leadership team to more than one-third, compared with one-quarter on the previous team. Meanwhile, the senior leaders of field operations are now 25% women, up from "unacceptably low 10%" previously, he said, adding that the company hasn't "arrived at the destination we aspire to."

To succeed those being promoted, Coca-Cola moved other insiders into senior roles. Starting Jan. 1, Manuel Arroyo will be president for Asia Pacific and Nikos Koumettis will be president for EMEA. These executives, along with the heads of North America and Latin America, will report to Mr. Smith.

The company's top human-resources officer, Jennifer Mann, will take over as head of Coca-Cola's ventures group, a new role that will oversee the Costa Coffee business and Coca-Cola's investment in Monster Beverage Corp. Coca-Cola said it will appoint a new human-resources chief at a later date.

Write to Jennifer Maloney at jennifer.maloney@wsj.com and Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 19, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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