Coca-Cola has appointed the president of its Eurasia and Middle East segment as the company’s first chief digital officer, the beverage giant announced.
Sedef Salingan Sahin, a longtime Coke marketing and operations leader, will oversee “the next chapter of Coca-Cola’s digital journey,” the company said, including integrating its digital network and connecting work across related functions.
“The chief digital officer position is a pivotal new role for our future,” Henrique Braun, the company’s incoming chief executive, said in the announcement. “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.”
John Murphy, Coke’s president and CFO, previously led its digital initiatives. The company also announced that Murphy’s oversight of customer and commercial leadership would shift to newly promoted Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Customer Commercial Officer Manolo Arroyo.
Coke announced leaders for two new operating units, as well: one covering India, Greater China, Mongolia, Japan, South Korea and Southwest Asia led by Sanket Ray, and another, helmed by Claudia Lorenzo, covering Eurasia, the Middle East, Africa, the ASEAN region and the South Pacific.
The changes will take effect March 31, coinciding with Braun’s shift from executive vice president and COO to CEO.
