Saadia Madsbjerg to be Named President of The Coca‑Cola Foundation
05-03-2021
ATLANTA, May 3, 2021 – The Coca‑Cola Company today announced that Saadia Madsbjerg will be named Vice President of Global Community Affairs for The Coca‑Cola Company and President of The Coca‑Cola Foundation.
Madsbjerg is expected to join the company June 1. She will manage operations of the Foundation, which includes grant making, financial requirements and regulatory compliance for domestic and international philanthropy.
“I’m thrilled to join The Coca‑Cola Foundation, which has a built a remarkable legacy over a period of nearly 40 years through giving more than $1 billion to meaningful programs impacting communities worldwide,” Madsbjerg said. “I look forward to working with the Foundation's partners and grantees in Atlanta and around the world.”
Madsbjerg is a former managing director of The Rockefeller Foundation, where she led efforts to seed-fund the development and launch of new financial instruments and partnerships designed to channel money from capital markets toward sustainable development.
“Saadia brings years of experience in corporate strategy and philanthropy, as well as in launching and leading sustainable, impact investing programs across public and private sectors to address challenges such as climate change, inequality and humanitarian crises,” said Bea Perez, Chief Communications, Sustainability & Strategic Partnerships Officer at The Coca‑Cola Company. “We are thrilled to have someone of her caliber and look forward to Saadia building on the great history of The Coca‑Cola Foundation.”
Before joining The Rockefeller Foundation, Madsbjerg was senior vice president for strategic planning at the New York City Economic Development Corp. She led a portfolio of projects focused on transformative opportunities for creating a more equitable and resilient economy.
Madsbjerg also previously worked in the technology sector at Cisco Systems, advising Fortune 500 companies and public sector institutions on how innovative technology could help create new business models and address critical challenges, such as social and economic challenges caused by an aging society.
Prior to Cisco, Madsbjerg was an associate principal at McKinsey & Co., where she advised multinational companies on corporate strategy.
Madsbjerg is the coauthor of Making Money Moral, a book that tracks the growth of sustainable and impact investing and features first-hand stories of innovations unlocking private-sector capital to solve critical challenges of the 21st century.
Madsbjerg, 44, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Copenhagen Business School. She will be relocating to Atlanta from New York.
Madsbjerg will report to Perez and succeeds Helen Price, who retired in 2020.
About The Coca‑Cola Foundation
The Coca‑Cola Foundation is the global philanthropic arm of The Coca‑Cola Company. Since its inception in 1984, The Foundation has awarded more than $1 billion in grants to support sustainable community initiatives around the world, including protecting the environment; empowering women; and the overall well-being of communities through education, youth development, arts and culture and economic development.
About The Coca‑Cola Company
The Coca‑Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories. Our company’s purpose is to refresh the world and make a difference. We sell multiple billion-dollar brands across several beverage categories worldwide. Our portfolio of sparkling soft drink brands includes Coca‑Cola, Sprite and Fanta. Our hydration, sports, coffee and tea brands include Dasani, smartwater, vitaminwater, Topo Chico, Powerade, Costa, Georgia, Gold Peak, Honest and Ayataka. Our nutrition, juice, dairy and plant-based beverage brands include Minute Maid, Simply, innocent, Del Valle, fairlife and AdeS. We’re constantly transforming our portfolio, from reducing sugar in our drinks to bringing innovative new products to market. We seek to positively impact people’s lives, communities and the planet through water replenishment, packaging recycling, sustainable sourcing practices and carbon emissions reductions across our value chain. Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people, helping bring economic opportunity to local communities worldwide. Learn more at www.coca-colacompany.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
