NIGERIA – Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited (CCNL) has appointed Yebeltal Getachew as the new Managing Director of the company.
Getachew, whose appointment was effective June 2019, takes over from Bhupendra Suri and will be responsible for leading and optimizing profitable revenue and volume growth of Coca-Cola’s business in Nigeria.
He is an international business professional with multi-industry and country experience in top management positions across Africa.
“Getachew brings to the company in-depth knowledge and wealth of experience, having worked across Africa in senior leadership positions within the Coca-Cola system.
“We are pleased to have him join Coca-Cola Nigeria and leverage his experience for our total beverage portfolio in Nigeria,” the company said in a statement signed by the Public Affairs and Communications Manager, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe.
Prior to his appointment in Coca-Cola Nigeria, he was the General Manager, Stills and VEB, responsible for overall leadership of the Stills Beverages business for the West Africa Business Unit (WABU) across 33 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Getachew joined The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) in July 2000 as the Marketing Manager for the Horn of Africa territory of the Central, East and West Africa Business Unit (CEWABU).
Since then he has worked at various roles across several countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Mauritius, Tanzania, Eretria, Uganda and Mozambique.
He has worked with the Coca-Cola as the Operations Marketing Representative for Ethiopia and Djibouti and as Country Lead for Mauritius in 2007- when he won the prestigious annual Central East and West Africa Business Unit Values Champion Award.
In addition, he has also served as the Customer and Commercial Leadership Director for WABU, as Country Manager for Tanzania and as the Regional Franchise Manager for Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda and Mozambique.
He is credited for developing and rolling out best-in-class frameworks and training modules for initiatives such as Right Execution Daily (RED) and Third party Distributor Operation Standard Assessment (DOSA).
He has also worked at Urgent Cargo Handling (K) Limited, Nairobi, Kenya, where he served at various roles and rose to the position of operations director between April 1998 to January 2000.
Gatchew holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business Administration (Economic Development & International Trade) from United States International University (African campus) in Nairobi, Kenya.
He also has a postgraduate certificate and MBA from Edinburgh Business School – Heriot Watt University Scotland.
