The Coca-Cola Company's New Succession Plan Fails to Create Independent Board Leadership

The Coca-Cola Company's New Succession Plan Fails to Create Independent Board Leadership

Contact: David White, (202) 624-8730

December 7, 2007

(Washington, D.C. ) – The Coca-Cola Company's (NYSE: KO) new leadership structure announced yesterday fails to establish the independent board leadership critical to ensuring objective board oversight and management accountability. The implementation of a new succession plan wastes an opportunity for The Coca-Cola Company to act in the interests of its investors and institute a policy requiring the chairman of the board to be a fully independent director.

"While this succession plan may change the Company’s leadership structure for the time being, it’s still business as usual at The Coca-Cola Company," said C. Thomas Keegel, General Secretary-Treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "The Company has made no policy to create independent board leadership, and no such leadership currently exists. Chairman Isdell has served as CEO since 2004 and has been with the Coca-Cola system since 1966. Shareholders need an independent leader to ensure effective board oversight at The Coca-Cola Company, and now is the time."

Under The Coca-Cola Company’s senior leadership succession plan, Chairman and current President and Chief Operating Officer Muhtar Kent will succeed Neville Isdell as CEO, effective July 1, 2008. Isdell, who currently holds the positions of CEO and Chairman, will remain Chairman until The Coca-Cola Company’s 2009 annual meeting. The Company does not disclose who will assume the position of board chair at that time.

The Teamsters General Fund has filed a shareholder proposal for The Coca-Cola Company’s 2008 annual meeting calling on Coke’s Board of Directors to adopt a policy ensuring the chairman of the board be an independent director who has not served as an executive officer of the Company. Noting the Coca-Cola Company’s lackluster performance and strong concerns regarding excessive executive pay, the Fund argues that an independent board chair would best ensure that management acts strictly in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders.

A Teamster-led shareholder initiative in 2005 calling for executive severance pay reform received more than 40 percent support of the voting shareholders. This initiative ultimately led to the Company’s adoption of a new severance policy with enhanced shareholder accountability measures.

"The Teamsters have long been active investors in Coca-Cola and our efforts have led to positive corporate governance changes," Keegel said. "We will continue to fight for independent oversight at Coca-Cola."

The Teamsters Brewery and Soft Drink Workers Conference represents more than 14,000 employees of Coca-Cola and CCE in the United States and Canada. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was founded in 1903 and represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.