Douglas N. Daft is the retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company. Mr. Daft joined The Coca- Cola Company in 1969 in its Sydney, Australia office, and subsequently held various positions with the company throughout Asia. Mr. Daft moved to the company’s Atlanta, Georgia headquarters in 1991 to assume responsibility for the company’s Asia and Pacific regions. Later the Middle East and African regions were added. Mr. Daft was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of the company in 1999 and was elected Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 2000. He served in those capacities until retiring in May 2004.
Mr. Daft is a a Director of The McGraw-Hill Group of Companies, a Director of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. Mr. Daft is an advisory board member of Longreach, Inc., Tisbury Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
Mr. Daft is also a member of the European Advisory Council for N.M. Rothschild & Sons Limited; a member of the Board of Governors of Thunderbird School of Global Management, The Garvin School of International Management in Arizona; Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge; a Patron of the American Australian Association; and a Trustee of the Cambridge Foundation.
He was a Director of the Russian real estate company Sistema-Hals.