New CEO for Coca Cola (News from BoardEX)

Coca-Cola Enterprises announced the appointment of a new CEO this month. Lowry Kline announced that he would be stepping down as CEO on 15 May but will still retain the chairmanship. Kline had been joint chairman/CEO since the end of 2005, following the departure of John Alm. Prior to 2002, he was vice chairman/CEO, having originally joined the firm as general counsel in 1991. Kline is also a director of the Dixie Group.

The new CEO will be John Brock, who previously served as COO of Cadbury Schweppes following a career that was primarily in the beverages division. He is also a director of Campbell Soup and a former director of Reed Elsevier.

There has also been a change of chairman at InBev. Dr Pierre Everaert stepped down from the position on 25 April, having been chairman since April 2001. Prior to that, he also served as a director of the company, commencing in 1997. Dr Everaert has had a distinguished career, including serving as president/CEO of Ahold (1989–93), executive VP of Philips Electronics (1993–96) and chairman of Baan (Jan–Aug 2000). He has, inter alia, also been governor of the World Economic Forum and a visiting professor at the University of Gent. He will continue his association with InBev by serving as honorary chairman.

He was replaced by Dr Peter Harf, who also serves as deputy chairman of Reckitt Benckiser and a director of Brunswick. He was appointed a director of InBev in 2002, having spent much of his career in Reckitt Benckiser or its predecessor companies. He joined Benckiser in 1981 and rose to become chairman of Benckiser NV (1988–99).