Luis Felipe Avellar has been appointed as the new president of The Coca‑Cola Company’s Africa operating unit, effective September 1. Avellar is currently the president of Coca‑Cola’s Mexico operations within the Latin America unit. He will take over from Luisa Ortega, who will become president of the company’s Europe operating unit.
Avellar will report to Henrique Braun, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Coca‑Cola. “Luis has had an outstanding career that has included extensive leadership roles in our Latin America operations,” Braun said. “Luis also has experience working for our company in Africa, and I’m excited to see him return to Johannesburg to build on the system’s ongoing work to serve the growing African market.”
Avellar, 49, joined Coca‑Cola in 2002 as a finance specialist in Brazil and held various positions with increasing responsibility before becoming general manager of Brazil South Region in 2016. In 2019, he was appointed vice president and general manager for Southern Africa based in Johannesburg. Two years later, he returned to Latin America as president of Brazil and South Cone operations before moving into his current role in Mexico in 2023.
He began his professional career at SC Johnson in Brazil’s finance department in 1998.
