Coca-Cola has run on Atlanta time for more than a century, so a new CEO showing up to shake hands is not a small thing here. Henrique Braun, who took over the top job less than two months ago, used the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour as his coming-out moment. SaportaReport's Maria Saporta writes that Braun welcomed Gov. Brian Kemp and Mayor Andre Dickens to Coca-Cola headquarters on May 14, with the trophy on hand and Atlanta's host-city status front and center.
Braun, who turns 58 soon, succeeded James Quincey, the English executive who ran the company from 2017 until March 31. Former CEO Neville Isdell, who held the role in the mid-2000s, told Saporta the handoff has been one of the smoothest in his memory, which is the kind of thing predecessors say when they actually mean it.
The timing is not an accident. The World Cup is now weeks away, and every Atlanta institution with a logo is finding its angle. For Coca-Cola, a hometown introduction wrapped around the most-watched trophy on earth is about as on-brand as it gets, and it keeps the company's name attached to the city's biggest moment of the year.
