Steven J. Heyer, the president and COO of the Coca-Cola Co. will leave the company following a mutual agreement between Heyer and new CEO E. Neville Isdell.
“In discussions over the past week, Steve and I have looked at how he could best realize his personal goals given my election as chairman and CEO of this company,” Isdell said in a statement. “We agreed that Steve could best realize his aspirations by pursuing opportunities outside of the company.”
Heyer, who had been a considered a candidate for the top job, will continue in his role over the next several months to help with an orderly transition, the company said.
Isdell acknowledged Heyer’s contributions over the last three years as “meaningful” and said Heyer had been instrumental in helping to position the company for the future.
Heyer joined the Coca-Cola Co. in March 2001 from AOL Time Warner, where he had been president and COO of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and a member of the AOL Time Warner operating committee. Prior to being elected president and COO in December 2002, Heyer had been president and COO of Coca-Cola Ventures.
Heyer also serves on a number of boards including Equifax, Inc., Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. and Coca-Cola FEMSA. The company declined to comment on whether Heyer would remain on the Coca-Cola boards following his departure from the company.
Isdell formally assumed the position of chairman and CEO June 1.
In a separate development, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Coke ended an ad campaign targeting young people that showed a cold can of Coke being used by two people to cool off their bodies. Coke execs complained that it used “low-grade humor,” not in line with Coke’s typical images in its ad campaigns.
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