Neville Isdell

Neville Isdell is the former chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. After 43 years in the Coca-Cola system, he retired in April 2009. Building on an incredibly rich and successful history, Mr. Isdell took the world’s largest beverage company to new heights during his tenure. He expanded on the company’s proud legacy of corporate responsibility by embedding sustainability throughout every facet of the organization and helping ensure its role as a community-connected twenty-first century enterprise. These efforts resulted in The Coca-Cola Company’s return to Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list in 2006. In 2009, the company moved up to the #12 spot in the global ranking. A native of Ireland, Mr. Isdell joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1966 with the local bottling company in Zambia. In 1972, he became general manager of Coca-Cola Bottling of Johannesburg, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in Africa at the time. Mr. Isdell was named region manager for Australia in 1980. In 1981, he became president of the bottling joint venture between The Coca-Cola Company and San Miguel Corporation in the Philippines. Mr. Isdell moved to Germany as president of the company's Central European Division in 1985. In 1989, he was elected senior vice president of the company and appointed president of the Northeast Europe/Africa Group (renamed the Northeast Europe/Middle East Group in 1992) and led the company's entry into new markets in India, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. In 1995, he was named president of the Greater Europe Group. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Isdell served as chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Beverages Plc in Great Britain, where he oversaw that company's merger with Hellenic Bottling to form Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC). He retired as vice chairman of Coca-Cola HBC in December 2001. From January 2002 to May 2004, Mr. Isdell was an international consultant to The Coca-Cola Company and headed his own investment company in Barbados. In June 2004, Mr. Isdell was called out of retirement to lead The Coca-Cola Company as chairman and CEO. Mr. Isdell serves as chairman of the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF). He is a trustee of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and of CSIS. He serves on the Advisory Board of the World Heritage Investment Project (WHIP) and the Leadership Council of Initiative for Global Development (IGD) and on the Board of Directors of General Motors and on the global leadership panel of the UN special representative for business and human rights. He is a recipient of the Clinton Global Citizen Award, the Ellis Island International Medal of Honor, and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. In 2008, he was honored with the Ethics Advocate Award by the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility and was also named as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics by the Ethisphere Institute. Mr. Isdell received a bachelor's degree in social sciences from the University of Cape Town and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development. In 2007, he received an honorary doctor of science degree from the University of Ulster, and in 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctor of international laws degree by the Thunderbird School of Global Management and an honorary doctor of science degree in economics by Queen’s University Belfast.