MAM
Coca Cola India appoints John Ustas as CEO of bottling operations
MUMBAI: Coca Cola India has appointed John Ustas as the CEO of the company’s bottling operations with effect from 1 July.
This move has been made to help develop the company-owned organisations that will drive profitable growth, particularly in highly strategic and rapidly developing markets like India.
Ustas most recently served as managing director of Coca-Cola Drikker AS, the Norway bottling operations, where he led the creation of a strong, profitable bottler.
He has more than 23 years of experience in the beverage industry in the US and Europe and has a B.S. in finance from Northeastern University, an MBA from Pace University.
Ustas will work closely with the Coca-Cola India team and will report directly to Steve Buffington, regional director of Latin America and Asia for Bottling Investments.
“This move will help strengthen our management team in India and appropriately position us to capture a new level of success in one of our most important long-term growth markets,” a company statement said.
Vipul Saurabh, who is the current head of the company’s bottling operations in India, will work closely with Ustas over the next several months to ensure a smooth and successful transition.
Following this transition Saurabh will move to a challenging developmental role within our international bottling system, details of which will be announced at a later date.
Coca-Cola India is also on the lookout for a new chief financial officer (CFO). A company release informed that the changes to strengthen its finance team had been announced internally a month ago, when the present CFO Mark Roddy finished his tenure, who will move out in September. His replacement will be announced from Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters.
The changes in the finance team will see Coca Cola India vice president finance – bottling operations Sanjeev Kumar moving to Atlanta, who will be executive assistant to Coke’s bottling investments president Irial Finan. Also, Coca Cola Zurich director finance Ravi Prakash has been brought back to the India operations.
Gaurav Duggal and Sunil Gupta have been promoted to deputy chief financial officers for the bottling operations.
“The company is fully Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, confirmed both by internal and external auditors as 31 December, 2004. The company regularly conducts internal audits of its operations, including financial and environmental audits,” the statement said.
MAM
Coca-Cola appoints Tapaswee Chandele as Global Chief People Officer
Succeeds Lisa Chang from May 1, reports to CEO Henrique Braun
MUMBAI- When leadership refreshes, culture often follows and The Coca-Cola Company is pouring a new mix into its global people strategy. The company has appointed Tapaswee Chandele as its Global Chief People Officer, marking a key transition in its human resources leadership as long-time executive Lisa Chang steps down after seven years in the role.
The appointment, effective May 1, positions Chandele at the helm of Coca-Cola’s global people agenda at a time when multinational organisations are rethinking talent, culture and leadership pipelines in an increasingly hybrid and competitive workforce landscape.
In her new role, she will report to chief executive officer Henrique Braun, signalling the strategic importance of HR within the company’s top leadership structure.
Chandele brings over two decades of institutional knowledge to the role. She currently serves as senior vice president and executive assistant to president and chief financial officer John Murphy, a position she has held since May 2025, placing her at the centre of the company’s financial and operational decision-making. Prior to this, she spent six years, from 2019 to 2025, as senior vice president of global talent, development and HR system partnerships, where she led Coca-Cola’s worldwide talent strategy and worked closely within Chang’s leadership team.
Her journey with Coca-Cola began in 2001 in India, and over the years she has built a cross-market perspective through roles spanning human resources and talent development. Her international assignments across Turkiye and South Africa, followed by a relocation to the United States in 2017, reflect a career shaped by both geographic and functional diversity, an increasingly critical trait for global leadership roles.
The transition also marks the end of Lisa Chang’s seven-year tenure, during which she played a central role in shaping Coca-Cola’s global people practices through a period defined by organisational transformation and evolving workforce expectations.
Chandele’s elevation comes at a time when HR is no longer a back-office function but a strategic driver of growth, culture and resilience. As Coca-Cola looks ahead, the focus will likely be on aligning talent strategy with business agility ensuring that the people behind the brand remain as globally adaptive as the product itself.
