Coke Assigns 3 Top Executives to New Posts
In a preview of who might be running Coca-Cola Co. in a few years, the soft-drink giant has given some of its rising executive stars new jobs.
Coke also has announced that its president and chief operating officer, Donald R. Keough, will remain in his job until fall 1993, two years beyond the Atlanta-based company’s customary retirement age of 65. This decision had been announced to Coca-Cola management about two months ago and “was widely known within the company,” said spokesman Randy Donaldson.
The company said M. Douglas Ivester would become president of Coca-Cola USA, the soft-drink maker’s U.S. operation. Ivester, 43, has been with Coke since 1979 and has been president of the company’s European Community Group since June, 1989.
He succeeds Ira C. Herbert as president of Coca-Cola USA. Herbert will continue as executive vice president of Coke and will have corporate responsibility for Coca-Cola USA as well as the company’s Canadian subsidiary.
John Hunter, currently a senior vice president at Coke and president of the company’s Pacific Group, will be given additional responsibilities as deputy to John W. Georgas, who heads the International Business Sector.
Ralph H. Cooper, currently president of the Northwest European Division, will succeed Ivester as president of the European Community Group.
The changes are effective Aug. 1.
Industry observers said Ivester, Hunter and Cooper are among Coke’s brightest stars, and they could rise higher in the next few years.
“I think that’s the issue with Coke over the next five years--who will rise to the upper echelon. Some of the very senior guys at Coke are getting older,” said Hugh S. Zurkuhlen, an analyst who follows Coca-Cola for Salomon Bros. in New York.
“We now know with some degree of definitiveness who are the key players for the future president and even chairman of the Coca-Cola Co.,” said Jesse Meyers, publisher of the industry newsletter Beverage Digest.
The management changes are part of the company’s natural evolution, Coke’s Donaldson said.
“We have a very talented group of senior management, and that gives us the latitude to make changes like this,” he said. “When you have people that capable, you want to broaden their experience.”
