Coca-Cola names new VP of public affairs and sustainability

The Coca-Cola Company has promoted Russell Mahoney (pictured) as VP, public affairs, communications and sustainability. According to Mahoney's LinkedIn post, he will be leading the team across ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific and looks to address "some big sustainability issues" in the company. While he is still based in Sydney, Mahoney said he will be moving to Singapore in the coming months.  

Mahoney was formerly group director, public policy, where he led Coca-Cola's integrated engagement strategies on policy issues in ASEAN countries, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. He first joined Coca-Cola as director, external affairs, Japan before moving to Coca-Cola South Pacific, based in Sydney. There, he worked as senior manager, communications and government relations and, later, director, public affairs, communications and sustainability. 

Prior to joining Coca-Cola, Mahoney was corporate affairs director, Woolworths Supermarkets at Woolworths Group for two and a half years. He also previously worked at FTI Consulting and Australian Broadcasting Corporation. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Coca-Cola for comment.

Separately, Coca-Cola said last month that it aims to significantly boost its use of reusable packaging by having at least 25% of all beverages globally, across its portfolio of brands, sold in refillable or returnable glass or plastic bottles, or in refillable containers through traditional fountain or Coca-Cola freestyle dispensers.

The move comes as part of Coca-Cola's World Without Waste initiative, which includes several objectives such as making all primary consumer packaging recyclable by 2025, and collecting and recycling a bottle or can for every one it sells by 2030. Currently, returnable glass bottles and refillable bottles represent more than 50% of the company’s product sales in over 20 markets and more than 25% of sales in another 20 markets.

Coca-Cola's move to sustainability also comes after a global brand audit by the #breakfreefromplastic movement released in September last year, which revealed that Coca-Cola was the world’s worst corporate plastic polluter since 2018. The company has since called for a global pact to address plastic pollution, alongside over 70 companies, which included other top plastic polluters such as Unilever, Mondelēz, P&G, Nestle, Mars, PepsiCo, and Danone.

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