E8 Sec. Board Member, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Chairperson
Mr E. Neville Isdell is the former chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company where he worked for 43 years. Mr. Isdell took the world’s largest beverage company to new heights during his tenure. He expanded on the company’s proud legacy of corporate responsibility by embedding sustainability throughout every facet of the organization and helping ensure its role as a community-connected twenty-first century enterprise. These efforts resulted in The Coca-Cola Company’s return to Fortune’s “World Most Admired Companies” list in 2006.
In 2009, the company moved up to the #12 spot in the global ranking. A native of Ireland, Mr. Isdell joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1966 in Zambia. In 1972, he became general manager of Coca-Cola Bottling of Johannesburg. He was named region manager for Australia in 1980. In 1981, he became president of the bottling joint venture between The Coca-Cola Company and San Miguel Corporation in the Philippines.
In 1985, he became president of the company’s Central European Division. In 1989, he was elected senior vice president of the company and appointed president of the Northeast Europe/Africa Group and led the company’s re-entry into new markets in India, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union.
In 1995, he was named president of the Greater Europe Group. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Isdell served as chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Beverages Plc in Great Britain. He retired as vice chairman of Coca-Cola HBC in December 2001. January 2002 to May 2004, Mr. Isdell was an international consultant to The Coca-Cola Company. In June 2004, Mr. Isdell came out of retirement to lead The Coca-Cola Company as Chairman and CEO. He retired in 2009.
Mr Isdell serves on the Boards of WWF US (as Chairperson for 6 years until 2019); the Patron of WWF International; Peace Parks Foundation; Malaria Elimination 8 and Isdell Flowers Malaria Initiative. He is the founder and Chair of Epic Ireland, an award-winning museum based in Dublin Ireland. He served on several Boards of Quoted companies including General Motors in the US, British Telecom and Scottish and Newcastle in the UK and Boards in Australia, Mexico and Greece. Mr Isdell is a recipient of the Clinton Global Citizen Award. He received a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from the University of Cape Town and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School PMD. He is the recipient of four honorary degrees.