Henrique Braun

Overview

Henrique Braun
Born	1967 (age 58–59) California, United States
Citizenship	Brazilian, American
Education	Bachelor of Science in agricultural engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Master of Science, Michigan State University; Master of Business Administration, Georgia State University
Alma mater	Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Michigan State University; Georgia State University
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	The Coca-Cola Company
Known for	Senior leadership roles at The Coca-Cola Company; CEO-designate of Coca-Cola
Title	Chief Executive Officer-designate of The Coca-Cola Company
Term	Chief Operating Officer (2025–present); Chief Executive Officer (effective 31 March 2026)
Predecessor	James Quincey
Board member of	Coca-Cola HBC AG; Atlantic Council Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center (advisory council)

🥤 Henrique Braun (born 1967) is a Brazilian-American business executive and long-serving leader at The Coca-Cola Company. In December 2025 the company’s board named Braun, then chief operating officer, as its next chief executive officer, effective 31 March 2026, succeeding James Quincey. Over a nearly three-decade career with Coca-Cola he has held senior roles across four continents and is among the few Brazilian-born executives chosen to lead a major United States corporation.

🌎 Global career at The Coca-Cola Company. Braun joined Coca-Cola in 1996 as a trainee in the global engineering department in Atlanta and subsequently held positions in supply chain, operations, marketing and innovation in North America and Europe. He went on to lead businesses in Greater China and South Korea, Brazil, Latin America and a newly formed International Development group before being appointed chief operating officer in 2025, consolidating his reputation as a versatile operator within the company’s global system.

📈 Context for his appointment. Braun is due to assume the chief executive role during a period of changing consumer preferences, sugar taxes and inflationary pressures in the global beverages industry. Under Quincey, Coca-Cola broadened its portfolio beyond traditional colas and saw its share price rise by about 60% between 2017 and 2025, compared with roughly 35% for rival PepsiCo; in 2025 Coca-Cola shares were up around 11% year to date, outpacing both the S&P 500 consumer staples index and PepsiCo’s slight decline. Analysts generally view his promotion as an evolution, rather than a departure, from the strategy pursued under Quincey.

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Early life and education

🎓 Binational upbringing and education. Braun was born in California in 1967 but grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, acquiring dual American and Brazilian citizenship and becoming fluent in both English and Portuguese. This bicultural upbringing later informed his management style and helped him navigate different corporate and national cultures.

🧪 Engineering and graduate training. Showing an early interest in science and engineering, Braun studied agricultural engineering at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro before moving to the United States, where he earned a Master of Science degree from Michigan State University and a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University. His technical and analytical education provided a foundation for the problem-solving approach that characterised his business career.

🧑‍💼 Decision to join Coca-Cola. After completing his studies Braun chose to pursue a corporate rather than an academic path, joining Coca-Cola in 1996 as a trainee in the global engineering department in Atlanta. He later recalled that the company’s management trainee programme offered “broad opportunities to explore and to learn” and exposed him to colleagues from diverse backgrounds whose perspectives provided “invaluable insights” into his career path, deepening his interest in international business. This early immersion in Coca-Cola’s global culture set the stage for his subsequent rise through the company’s ranks.

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Career

🏭 Early operational and marketing roles. In his early years at Coca-Cola Braun worked on supply-chain and operations projects in North America and Europe and later took on marketing and innovation assignments. By the 2000s he had served as director for still (non-carbonated) beverages in Europe and as vice president of innovation and operations in the Brazil business unit, roles that combined technical knowledge with commercial responsibilities. These posts signalled his ability to bridge operational detail and market strategy.

🌏 Leadership in Greater China and South Korea. Braun’s first major general management appointment came in 2013, when he was named president of Coca-Cola’s Greater China and South Korea business, then the company’s third-largest market. Between 2013 and 2016 he led the unit through a period of portfolio diversification and what company accounts described as an “execution transformation”, adapting product offerings and go-to-market strategies to local tastes and a fast-evolving retail landscape.

🇧🇷 President of Coca-Cola Brazil and Latin America. In 2016 Braun returned to Brazil as president of Coca-Cola Brazil, one of the group’s most strategically important national operations. He was credited with strengthening market execution and returning the business to growth despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. In 2020 he was promoted to president of the Latin America operating unit, overseeing Central and South American markets as they confronted the COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain disruptions and swings in consumer demand. Colleagues cited his calm, analytical approach as a stabilising influence during this period.

🌐 International Development and global responsibilities. In 2023 Braun became senior vice president and president of International Development, taking responsibility for seven of Coca-Cola’s nine operating units across Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific. By January 2024 he had been promoted to executive vice president, and on 1 January 2025 he assumed the role of chief operating officer, with oversight of all Coca-Cola businesses worldwide, including the key North American and European markets. This appointment effectively made him the company’s second-in-command.

🧾 Succession to chief executive. Braun’s promotion to chief operating officer positioned him as the heir apparent to the chief executive role. In December 2025 Coca-Cola announced a succession plan under which he would succeed James Quincey as chief executive officer from 31 March 2026, citing his performance across multiple geographies and his experience guiding operations through changing consumer habits, logistical pressures and heightened competition. Observers noted that his history of fixing underperforming divisions and managing growth in emerging markets was central to the board’s decision.

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Strategic vision and leadership style

🧠 Collaborative, operations-driven leadership. Commentators and colleagues describe Braun’s leadership style as collaborative and detail-oriented, shaped by his engineering training and long experience in operations. Having worked on four continents, he is regarded as attentive to local market nuances and supportive of empowered regional teams within Coca-Cola’s “networked” operating model. After being named CEO-designate he said he was “honored to take on this role” and emphasised his intention to work “in partnership with our bottlers” to maintain the momentum of the Coca-Cola system.

🥤 Consumer-centric portfolio strategy. Braun has framed his strategic priorities around making Coca-Cola “even more consumer-centric,” including accelerating the pivot towards low- and no-sugar beverages and functional drinks while preserving the core cola franchise. As chief operating officer he highlighted the growth of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and Diet Coke and supported limited-edition flavoured colas and other innovations aimed at keeping long-standing consumers engaged.

💻 Data, digital tools and execution. Braun has championed the use of digital platforms and data analytics to “connect the dots” across Coca-Cola’s global network, enabling quicker product innovation, more targeted marketing and more precise retail execution. Under his operational watch the company has invested in AI-driven marketing and precision retailing initiatives, while he has faced pressure to manage costs and keep prices competitive for consumers confronting inflationary strains. Analysts expect him to focus on supply-chain efficiency and cost control to support margins as the portfolio of healthier options expands.

🧩 Continuity with the Quincey era. Braun’s agenda is widely seen as a continuation of the transformation led by Quincey, who broadened Coca-Cola beyond carbonated soft drinks into categories such as coffee, dairy and energy and oversaw a share-price increase of around 60% between 2017 and 2025, compared with roughly 35% for PepsiCo in the same period. Even amid recent economic headwinds, Coca-Cola’s shares were up about 11% year to date in 2025, outpacing both the S&P 500 consumer staples index and PepsiCo’s modest decline. Braun, who helped integrate acquisitions such as Costa Coffee and BodyArmor and participated in streamlining the brand portfolio, is expected to continue using acquisitions and partnerships selectively while responding to sugar taxes, regulatory scrutiny of ingredients and sustainability demands.

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Financial and wealth profile

💰 Executive compensation. As a senior executive at a Fortune 100 company, Braun has received compensation in line with Coca-Cola’s upper management. In 2023, when he served as president of International Development, his total compensation was reported at about US$6.9 million, including a base salary of roughly US$700,000, with the remainder delivered mainly in incentives and stock-based awards.

📊 Chief operating officer package. When Coca-Cola promoted Braun to chief operating officer with effect from January 2025, it set his base salary at approximately US$1.05 million and granted eligibility for an annual cash bonus and long-term equity awards under the company’s executive incentive plans. A significant portion of his pay is structured as performance-based share awards, aligning his financial interests with long-term shareholder returns.

📈 Share ownership and benefits. By early 2025 Braun beneficially owned roughly half a million shares of Coca-Cola, including stock options, a stake estimated at US$30–35 million at recent market prices and representing well below 1% of the company’s outstanding equity. He also participates in executive pension and deferred compensation programmes and receives perquisites such as limited corporate aircraft usage and financial planning services, together valued at several hundred thousand dollars annually.

🧮 Comparison with other Coca-Cola executives. Braun’s remuneration is expected to increase once he assumes the chief executive role, subject to approval by Coca-Cola’s board. For context, outgoing CEO James Quincey received total compensation of about US$24.7 million in 2023. Braun has also earned additional income, albeit modest relative to his Coca-Cola pay, through his non-executive directorship at Coca-Cola HBC AG, where he has served on the board since 2021.

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Personal life and character

🏡 Private family life and dual citizenship. Despite his high-profile corporate role, Braun keeps a relatively low public profile outside work and few details of his family life are publicly disclosed. He holds dual Brazilian and American citizenship and has been described as embodying aspects of both cultures. His background in both countries has helped him act as a bridge between different parts of Coca-Cola’s operations.

🌐 Cultural agility and leadership demeanour. Fluent in English and Portuguese and familiar with the languages and business customs of markets where he has worked, Braun is often seen as connecting different regions of the company. Accounts of his career depict him as approachable and analytical, capable of moving from discussions of market analytics in Atlanta boardrooms to conversations about consumer habits with employees in São Paulo or Shanghai. He has credited mentors and colleagues from varied backgrounds with shaping his path, emphasising that collaboration across cultures has been central to his development as a leader.

🎣 Leisure and personal interests. Public reporting suggests that Braun’s leisure time is largely focused on his family and occasional returns to Brazil, with no widely publicised extravagant hobbies or prominent social-media presence, consistent with his reputation as a low-key executive.

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Controversies and challenges

⚖️ Health criticism and sustainability agenda. Braun’s leadership career has unfolded against intensifying criticism of sugary drinks and their role in public-health challenges. Coca-Cola has faced regulatory measures such as sugar taxes and pressure from health advocates, prompting the company to expand its portfolio of low- and no-sugar beverages, introduce smaller portion sizes and promote stevia-sweetened products in markets including Latin America. Braun is expected to advance the company’s environmental, social and governance commitments on health, packaging and water usage, drawing in part on his agricultural engineering background.

🗳️ Political pressures around his appointment. Braun’s rise to the top job coincided with political controversy in the United States. In 2025 former U.S. president Donald Trump publicly claimed that Coca-Cola had agreed to switch its U.S. flagship drink from high-fructose corn syrup to cane sugar, a statement that drew extensive media attention and briefly affected corn-futures prices. Coca-Cola, which rarely comments on partisan politics, later introduced a limited-release cane-sugar variant but did not announce a permanent reformulation. Around the same time Trump threatened heavy tariffs on Brazilian imports, placing additional political focus on Coca-Cola and on Braun, who was raised in Brazil but is also an American citizen.

📰 Nationality optics and governance commentary. Coverage of the succession noted that Coca-Cola’s official announcement unusually highlighted that Braun “is an American citizen who was born in California,” a detail some corporate-governance specialists interpreted as an effort to reassure stakeholders in an era of nationalist rhetoric while appointing a Brazilian-raised leader. Despite this sensitivity, reports described Braun as well regarded internally, with no major shareholder disputes or internal scandals linked to his tenure.

📉 Competitive and investor pressures. Looking ahead, Braun faces external challenges linked to inflation, activism by some investors and competitive responses from rivals such as PepsiCo, which has announced cost-cutting measures under pressure from an activist hedge fund. Analysts suggest that such moves could intensify price competition and pressure margins, even as Coca-Cola examines potential portfolio changes including a possible sale of its Costa Coffee chain to refocus on core beverages.

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Additional roles and outlook

🌍 Advisory and public-policy roles. Outside his formal responsibilities at Coca-Cola, Braun serves on the advisory council of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, contributing his business experience to discussions of economic development and policy in the region. He has also represented Coca-Cola at international forums, including meetings focused on sustainable packaging and consumer trends, reflecting his engagement with wider industry and policy debates.

🚀 Prospects as chief executive. Media in Brazil and abroad have highlighted Braun’s upcoming tenure as a symbolic moment, as he becomes one of the few Brazilian-born executives to lead a major U.S. multinational. He has spoken of “huge opportunities in a fast-changing global market” as Coca-Cola pursues its “total beverage” strategy, signalling an intention to balance continuity with adaptation as he guides the company into its next phase.

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