Coca-Cola is intensifying its focus on digital transformation as part of a planned organisational overhaul aimed at speeding decision-making, streamlining execution and deepening consumer understanding across global markets. The company has said the changes are intended to unify digital, data and operational excellence in one strategic hub, enabling faster adoption of technology and closer alignment with evolving consumer behaviour. Centralising digital under a single executive leader is part of this effort, creating clearer accountabilities and helping bridge the gaps between tech, marketing, data and commercial execution.
From 31 March, Manolo Arroyo, currently executive vice-president and chief marketing officer, will assume an expanded remit as executive vice-president and chief marketing and customer commercial officer. The move sees customer and commercial leadership responsibilities shift from CFO John Murphy to Arroyo, further consolidating marketing, customer strategy and commercial decision-making under one function. Arroyo joined Coca-Cola in 2017 as president of the Iberia franchise unit and has held the CMO role since 2019.
Alongside the change, Coca-Cola has created a new chief digital officer position to strengthen alignment between digital capabilities, data and operational excellence across the business. Sedef Salingan Sahin, currently president of the company’s Eurasia and Middle East operating unit, has been appointed to the newly established role.
In her new position, Sahin will lead the next phase of Coca-Cola’s digital strategy, overseeing the company’s global digital network and coordinating digital initiatives across multiple functions.
Sedef Salingan Sahin has been with Coca-Cola since 2003, when she joined the company as a marketing manager in Turkey. She later progressed to the role of marketing director for sparkling beverages within the Eurasia Africa Group.
Earlier in her career, Sahin led Coca-Cola’s nutrition, juice, dairy and plant-based category within the global marketing organisation, before moving into her current position as president of the Eurasia and Middle East operating unit. Both roles involved extensive work on advancing the company’s digital transformation, including the restructuring and modernisation of the marketing organisation.
As part of the latest leadership changes, responsibility for Coca-Cola’s digital strategy will transfer from president and chief financial officer John Murphy to Sahin. Murphy will remain in his current role and continue to work closely with incoming CEO Henrique Braun on driving the company’s growth agenda.
Braun, who currently serves as executive vice-president and chief operating officer, will take over as CEO on 31 March, succeeding James Quincey. Quincey will remain executive chairman of the board. Braun joined Coca-Cola in 1996 and has held a number of senior leadership positions across the business, including roles spanning marketing and innovation.
Describing the newly created chief digital officer position as a pivotal role for the company’s future, Braun said Sahin will be responsible for evaluating how Coca-Cola organises its digital teams globally. Her mandate includes strengthening execution, simplifying ways of working, and enabling greater precision and speed across the organisation.
Coca-Cola’s reshuffle highlights a wider industry shift in which digital capability, data integration and customer experience have become core growth drivers. By centralising digital strategy under a chief digital officer and strengthening the link between marketing and commercial leadership, the company is reinforcing the idea that technology and real-time customer insight are now central to brand strategy, media decisions and competitive advantage.
