Coca-Cola Reshapes Leadership to Speed Digital Transformation

By Connor Hart

Coca-Cola is reshaping its leadership team to accelerate its digital transformation, a move that comes as Henrique Braun prepares to step into the chief executive role this spring.

The beverage giant on Wednesday said it will create a new chief digital officer position and reorganize several senior-leadership responsibilities, underscoring efforts to centralize digital decision-making and speed up execution across its global business. The changes are set to take effect March 31, when Braun succeeds James Quincey as CEO, said the company.

In the transition, first disclosed last month, Quincey will become executive chairman.

"We are evolving our operating organization structure and elevating digital leadership so we can move faster and work smarter across all markets," Braun said.

Sedef Salingan Sahin, currently president of the company's Eurasia and Middle East operating unit, will take on the newly created role of chief digital officer and will report to Braun, the company said. In the role, Sahin will lead the next phase of Coca-Cola's digital transformation, integrating the company's digital network and coordinating work across related functions, it said.

Coca-Cola's digital-strategy efforts are currently overseen by Finance Chief John Murphy, who will continue to serve in the role, the company said. As CFO, Murphy will continue to oversee areas including global strategy, corporate development and investor relations, it said.

Customer and commercial-leadership responsibilities will additionally shift from Murphy to Manolo Arroyo, currently chief marketing officer, who will take on the expanded title of chief marketing and customer commercial officer, the company said.

Coca-Cola also said it will create two new market groupings aimed at sharpening focus on markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

"These changes are intended to help equip our organization to handle the dynamic conditions we are seeing in markets around the world," Braun said.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 14, 2026 07:54 ET (12:54 GMT)