The Coca-Cola Company creates chief digital officer role amid leadership restructure

The Coca-Cola Company has created a new chief digital officer role as part of a broader leadership reshuffle aimed at accelerating its digital transformation.

Sedef Salingan Sahin (pictured below) currently president of Coca-Cola’s Eurasia and Middle East operating unit, will take on the newly created role from 31 March this year. She will report to incoming CEO Henrique Braun.

In her new position, Sahin will be tasked with unifying digital, data and operational excellence across the company. She will lead Coca-Cola’s enterprise-wide digital strategy, integrating its digital network and connecting efforts across related functions.

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Digital strategy responsibilities, which were previously overseen by John Murphy in his capacity as president and chief financial officer, will transition to Sahin.

Sahin joined Coca-Cola in 2003 and has held multiple senior leadership roles across developed and developing markets. Prior to her current role, she served as president of the company’s nutrition, juice, dairy and plant category within the marketing organisation, where she led efforts to digitise the business and transform marketing operations.

The leadership changes come as Coca-Cola prepares for a CEO transition. As unveiled in December 2025, Braun, currently executive vice president and chief operating officer, will succeed James Quincey as CEO on March 31, 2026. Quincey will continue as executive chairman of the board.

As part of the reshuffle, customer and commercial leadership responsibilities will move from Murphy to Manolo Arroyo. Arroyo, currently executive vice president and chief marketing officer, will assume the expanded role of executive vice president and chief marketing and customer commercial officer.

Murphy will remain president and chief financial officer, continuing to oversee global strategy, corporate development, investor relations, tax, treasury, audit, accounting and controls, performance management and enterprise services.

Coca-Cola also announced changes to its operational leadership structure, creating two new market groupings reporting to Braun to sharpen its focus on Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Sanket Ray, currently president of the India and Southwest Asia operating unit, will oversee markets across India, Southwest Asia, Greater China and Mongolia, as well as Japan and South Korea. He will continue in his current role.

Claudia Lorenzo, currently chief of staff to Quincey and former president of the ASEAN and South Pacific operating unit, will become president of the Eurasia and Middle East operating unit. She will oversee markets across Eurasia and the Middle East, ASEAN and South Pacific, and Africa.

“The chief digital officer position is a pivotal new role for our future. Sahin's proven leadership will help shape how we digitalise the enterprise end-to-end, and over the next several months she will assess how to organise 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.

Braun added that the changes are aimed at better positioning the organisation to navigate increasingly dynamic market conditions globally.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for more information.

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