Dive Brief:
- The Coca-Cola Company unveiled a revamped leadership lineup Wednesday, shuffling key executives in a move it said was designed to accelerate technology adoption across the organization.
- As part of the changes, the beverage giant appointed Sedef Salingan Sahin, currently president of Coca-Cola’s Eurasia and Middle East operating unit, to serve in a newly-created chief digital officer role. Sahin will report to incoming CEO Henrique Braun, who is currently serving as COO, effective March 31.
- In the new position, Sahin will be tasked with leading "the next chapter of Coca-Cola’s digital journey," integrating the beverage maker's digital network and linking ongoing work across business functions, according to the announcement.
Dive Insight:
The C-suite addition follows a December announcement of a CEO transition at Coca-Cola. Current CEO James Quincey will step down in March as Braun, a 30-year veteran at the company, takes over the top role.
Braun described the CDO role as key to the company's future in the Wednesday announcement and praised Sahin's track record for leading digital transformation.
“Over the next several months [Sahin] 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,” Braun said.
Digital strategy efforts currently led by President and CFO John Murphy will transition to Sahin as part of the new appointment.
Coca-Cola has been steadily working to infuse AI into work processes. In 2024, the company inked a five-year strategic deal with Microsoft to pilot Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot for Microsoft 365, among other products, across its operations. The $1.1 billion deal cemented Microsoft as Coca‑Cola’s globally preferred strategic cloud and AI platform provider.
As the company works to plug AI across its units, integration is part of the work ahead.
"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," said Quincey, speaking during a December investor conference.
Amid leadership reorganization plans, the company cut 75 jobs at its Atlanta headquarters, Food Dive reported last week. Other food titans, including Nestlé and General Mills, also trimmed headcounts in the last nine months.
