Coca-Cola will bring back the position of CMO after two years when Manolo Arroyo takes up the role on January 1. He will also continue in his current position of president of Asia-Pacific.
Arroyo is set to succeed chief growth officer Francisco Crespo, who is retiring after a three-decade career with the soft-drink giant. Crespo was appointed to the then-newly created position in 2017, when former CMO Marcos de Quinto retired. Crespo was previously president of Coca-Cola Mexico.
The new CMO job will be more narrowly focused than that of Crespo, who had oversight of integrated global marketing, corporate strategy as well as customer and commercial operations.
While Arroyo will lead integrated global marketing, including teams for creative, category, marketing operations, design and knowledge and insights, corporate strategy will report to CFO John Murphy, while customer and commercial operations will report to president and COO Brian Smith.
"Francisco has played a critical role in the success of our company in recent years, especially in helping develop a growth strategy that has become thoroughly embedded in our operations and our culture," said James Quincey, chairman and chief executive of Coca-Cola. "He leaves an important legacy of helping make us more focused on fast-changing consumer needs at a critical time."
An earlier version of this story first appeared on campaignlive.co.uk.
