James Quincey

James Quincey
Born	James Robert Quincey 8 1, 1965
Birthplace	London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Occupation	Business executive
Title	Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company
Known for	Leading The Coca-Cola Company as Chairman and CEO
Education	University of Liverpool (BSc)
Spouse(s)	Jacqui Quincey
Children	2

James Robert Quincey (born 8 January 1965) is a British businessman who has served as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Coca-Cola Company, one of the world's largest beverage corporations. Born in London, Quincey built his career over more than two decades within Coca-Cola, rising through a succession of international leadership roles before being named president and chief operating officer (COO) in 2015 and then CEO in May 2017. He assumed the additional role of chairman of the board in 2019. During his tenure as CEO, Quincey steered Coca-Cola through a period of significant transformation, navigating declining consumer interest in sugary drinks by diversifying the company's portfolio and adding more than ten billion-dollar brands. Before joining Coca-Cola, he began his career as a management consultant at Bain & Company. In December 2025, The Coca-Cola Company announced a succession plan under which COO Henrique Braun would succeed Quincey as CEO in 2026, with Quincey continuing as executive chairman of the board.

Early Life

James Robert Quincey was born on 8 January 1965 in London, England. He grew up in the United Kingdom and went on to pursue higher education at the University of Liverpool, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree.

After completing his university studies, Quincey entered the business world through management consulting, joining the London office of Bain & Company, a global consultancy firm. His time at Bain provided him with foundational experience in corporate strategy and operations before he transitioned into the consumer goods industry.

Education

Quincey attended the University of Liverpool in northwest England, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree. The specific discipline of his degree has not been widely reported in public sources, though his subsequent career in management consulting and corporate leadership demonstrated a strong grounding in analytical and business disciplines.

Career

Early Career at Bain & Company

Before joining The Coca-Cola Company, Quincey worked at Bain & Company, the international management consultancy headquartered in Boston. He was based in the firm's London office, where he gained experience advising corporations on strategy and operations. This period laid the groundwork for his later career in multinational business management.

Joining The Coca-Cola Company

Quincey joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1996. Over the following two decades, he held a wide range of leadership positions across the company's global operations, accumulating extensive experience in different markets and functions. His career within Coca-Cola took him across multiple continents, giving him a deep understanding of the company's bottling system, brand management, and international market dynamics.

Among his roles, Quincey served as president of Coca-Cola's Europe Group, where he oversaw operations across a large and diverse set of markets. His work in Europe included navigating challenging economic conditions and managing relationships with the company's extensive network of bottling partners. He also held leadership positions in Coca-Cola's Latin America operations and other international divisions, broadening his operational expertise across both developed and emerging markets.

President and Chief Operating Officer

In August 2015, Quincey was named president and chief operating officer (COO) of The Coca-Cola Company, a promotion that positioned him as the leading candidate to eventually succeed then-CEO Muhtar Kent. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing all of Coca-Cola's operating units worldwide and played a central role in the company's ongoing strategic transformation.

As COO, Quincey worked to address several significant challenges facing the company, including flagging soda sales in key markets like the United States and Europe, where consumer preferences were shifting away from sugary carbonated drinks toward healthier options. He was involved in efforts to cut costs and improve operational efficiency across the enterprise.

The appointment received endorsement from former Coca-Cola CEO E. Neville Isdell, who expressed confidence in Quincey's ability to lead the company.

Appointment as CEO

In December 2016, The Coca-Cola Company announced that Quincey would succeed Muhtar Kent as CEO, with the transition set for May 2017. He officially became CEO on 1 May 2017, assuming leadership of one of the world's most recognizable consumer brands.

From the outset of his tenure, Quincey signalled a willingness to embrace change and innovation. In May 2017, shortly after assuming the top role, he delivered a notable message to Coca-Cola staff, encouraging them to take risks and not fear failure. "If we're not making mistakes, we're not trying hard enough," Quincey told employees, articulating a culture shift aimed at making the traditionally conservative company more entrepreneurial and adaptive.

Strategic Transformation as CEO

As CEO, Quincey oversaw a significant transformation of Coca-Cola's business model and brand portfolio. Recognizing the secular decline in consumption of traditional sugary carbonated soft drinks, he led efforts to diversify the company's offerings into a broader range of beverages, including water, tea, coffee, juices, sports drinks, and low- or zero-sugar variants of existing products.

Under Quincey's leadership, The Coca-Cola Company added more than ten billion-dollar brands to its portfolio, expanding well beyond its flagship cola product. This diversification strategy was designed to position the company as a "total beverage company" rather than primarily a maker of carbonated soft drinks, responding to evolving consumer health consciousness and taste preferences.

Quincey also oversaw organizational restructuring within Coca-Cola. In 2017, the company launched a major senior management reorganization aimed at streamlining its global operations and improving decision-making speed. These changes reflected Quincey's emphasis on agility and his belief that the company needed to move faster in responding to market trends.

Environmental and Sustainability Initiatives

During his tenure, Quincey also addressed growing public and regulatory pressure around environmental sustainability, particularly regarding plastic waste. In January 2018, under his leadership, Coca-Cola announced expanded commitments to recycling and reducing the company's plastic footprint, responding to mounting global concern about single-use plastics and their environmental impact. These initiatives were part of a broader corporate strategy to address sustainability concerns across the company's supply chain and packaging operations.

Chairman of the Board

In 2019, Quincey assumed the additional role of chairman of the board of The Coca-Cola Company, succeeding Muhtar Kent in that capacity as well. This dual role as chairman and CEO gave him consolidated leadership authority over both the company's management and its governance structure.

Innovation and Product Development

In the later years of his tenure, Quincey continued to push for innovation in Coca-Cola's product development. In early 2025, he discussed the possibility of reinventing traditional soft drinks by incorporating functional ingredients such as protein and fiber, signalling that the company was exploring ways to make its beverages align more closely with contemporary health and wellness trends.

Quincey also emphasized the importance of consumer-first thinking and cultural transformation in interviews and public appearances. In a discussion with Morgan Stanley, he outlined how these principles, along with a focus on global growth, had guided the company's strategy during his tenure.

CEO Succession and Transition

On 10 December 2025, The Coca-Cola Company announced a CEO succession plan. The company's board of directors revealed that Chief Operating Officer Henrique Braun would succeed Quincey as CEO in 2026, with Quincey continuing to serve as executive chairman of the board. The announcement was widely covered in the financial press, with outlets noting that Quincey's nearly nine-year tenure as CEO had been marked by significant portfolio diversification and adaptation to changing consumer preferences.

CNBC reported that the succession came as packaged food and beverage companies were broadly working to adjust their strategies in response to shifting consumer habits, including the growing influence of weight-loss drugs and health-conscious consumption patterns. Reuters described Braun as a company insider, consistent with Coca-Cola's long tradition of promoting from within its executive ranks.

In a 2025 interview on the podcast Grey Matter with Consello founder Declan Kelly, Quincey discussed the theme of stewarding change within a large global corporation, reflecting on the leadership principles that had guided his tenure at Coca-Cola.

Personal Life

James Quincey is married to Jacqui Quincey, and the couple have two children. The family is based in the Atlanta metropolitan area, where The Coca-Cola Company is headquartered. Despite his long residence in the United States and career with an American corporation, Quincey has retained his British nationality. He is among a relatively small number of non-American executives to have led The Coca-Cola Company, a corporation closely identified with American culture and commerce.

Quincey has maintained a relatively low public profile outside of his corporate duties. In a 2021 profile by CNN, he was featured as part of a series examining risk-taking in business leadership, with the profile exploring his approach to navigating uncertainty and driving change within a large, established organization.

Legacy

Quincey's tenure as CEO of The Coca-Cola Company spanned nearly nine years, during which the company underwent one of the most significant strategic transformations in its history. When he assumed the role in 2017, Coca-Cola was facing declining volumes of its core carbonated soft drinks in many markets. By the time his successor was announced in December 2025, the company had substantially diversified its brand portfolio, adding more than ten billion-dollar brands and repositioning itself as a total beverage company.

His leadership style, characterized by an emphasis on risk-taking and innovation within a traditionally conservative corporate culture, represented a departure from the management approach of some of his predecessors. His early directive to staff to "make mistakes" became one of the more widely cited management philosophies to emerge from Coca-Cola's executive suite in the 2010s.

Under Quincey, Coca-Cola also made commitments to environmental sustainability, particularly around plastic waste reduction and recycling, aligning the company with broader corporate responsibility trends in the consumer goods industry. The decision to continue as executive chairman after stepping down as CEO suggested that the company's board valued continuity in governance during the leadership transition to his successor, Henrique Braun.

As a British-born executive leading an American corporate icon, Quincey's career trajectory also reflected the increasingly international character of leadership at major American multinational corporations.