COCA-COLA Nigeria Limited has announced a new Managing Director. He is Adeola Adetunji.
The new helmsman’s appointment is effective January 1, 2013. He replaces Kelvin Balogun who was elevated recently to the position of President of Coca-Cola Central, East and West Africa (CEWA) Business Unit.
According to a release from the firm, Adetunji who is currently the General Manager for Manufacturing and Trading Services and Managing Director for Waveside (Pty.) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company in South Africa has had a 19-year service in The Coca-Cola Company. He has served successfully in varied roles of increasing responsibility spanning finance, marketing and operations.
He joined the Company in Atlanta in 1993 and was appointed as the South Africa Division Accounting Manager in 1996. He led the Coca-Cola business in East Africa to record growth between 2003 and 2005 and was central in stabilising the business in Southern Africa between 2005 and 2007, before moving to bottling operations in July 2008 as the East and North Africa Operations Director for Coca-Cola Sabco (The anchor bottler for Coca-Cola Company in Africa).
Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, Adetunji worked in audit and consulting roles with Spicer and Oppenheimer (now Nexia International) for over three years. He is a chartered accountant and holds a B.Sc. degree in Economics from the University of Ife, Nigeria and a MBA in Finance and Strategic Planning from the University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
We are very pleased to have another strong professional, Adeola Adetunji to lead the Coca-Cola business in Nigeria, one of our strategic growth markets”, said Nathan Kalumbu, outgoing President of Coca-Cola Central, East & West Africa who will be moving up as the Group President for Coca-Cola Eurasia & Africa Group. “We are confident that he would focus on delivering our system growth plan, leveraging the solid groundwork laid over the past two years.”
Adetunji said “I am excited at the opportunity to return to Nigeria and steward the Coca-Cola business; and I look forward to working with the team to further strengthen the fundamentals of our business and grow our market leadership”.