International Business Webinar Series: Leadership in Global Companies in Times of Pandemic

The Coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing global recession have created a most formidable disruption for business. Do they also imply a different type of leadership? Commentators, consultants, and executives are calling for new imperatives in setting goals, revisiting operating models, leadership attributes, embracing “stakeholder capitalism” and so on.

Hear what two senior leaders with extensive experience at The Coca-Cola Company — one of the most global companies in the world — have to say about the impact of the pandemic on leadership. Galya Molinas is President of the Mexico business unit of The Coca-Cola Company. Previously, she served as Senior Vice President of Global Strategy & Insights for the company. Ahmet Bozer served as the President of Coca-Cola International and Executive Vice President from 2013 until his retirement in 2016. In that position, he was responsible for all units outside North America.

Collectively, Galya and Ahmet will respond to the following questions. First, how is this pandemic different from other crises you have faced before, how is it not so different? Second, how can its impact on business be described? Third, how does it impact a business organization at large? Fourth, how have you led differently compared to previous crises in which you have led organizations? Finally, what have been the learnings so far, and has the pandemic helped you become better leaders?

This webinar will be moderated by Richard Phillips, Dean of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, and C.V. Starr Professor of Risk Management and Insurance. Richard’s area of expertise is risk management.

Key takeaways:

1. How do major disruptions impact global companies?
2. In what ways are global companies meeting the challenge?
3. Do such disruptions compel leaders to re-think leadership goals and style?

About the Speakers

Ahmet Bozer 

President, Coca-Cola International and Executive Vice President (retired)
The Coca Cola Company

Ahmet Bozer retired from The Coca Cola Company as an Executive Vice President in 2016. As President of Coca Cola International since 2013, he was responsible for all units outside North America. He began his career in 1985 with the audit firm Coopers & Lybrand, based in Atlanta. In 1990, he moved to The Coca Cola Company as a Financial Controller Manager in Atlanta and moved to Turkey in 1992 as Region Finance Manager. In 1994 he joined the Coca-Cola Bottlers of Turkey as Finance Director and was named managing Director of the bottler in 1998.

Ahmet also served as head of the US-Pakistan Business Council. In 2013, Ahmet was named Chairman of the Business Council for International Understanding, Chairman of the US-Turkey Business Council, Chairman of the US-Brazil Business Council, and was appointed to the Robinson College Board of Advisors at Georgia State University. Ahmet holds various board membership positions globally.

Galya Molinas

President, Mexico Business Unit
The Coca Cola Company

Galya Frayman Molinas is president of the Mexico business unit of The Coca-Cola Company. She began this role in January 2019.

Molinas began her career at Coca-Cola in 1996. She headed marketing for Coca-Cola Eurasia Group from 2005-08, a region that included India, Russia, Turkey, Adriatic and Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia, and the Middle East. Molinas moved into general management in 2009 as Turkey business unit president, and her responsibilities were extended to the Caucasus and Central Asia in 2012. She served in this capacity until 2017, when she assumed the Global Strategy & Insights role in Atlanta where she led corporate strategy development, ran global strategic planning process, and directed the design and implementation of next-generation insights and analytics capabilities.

She is also a member of the Advisory Board of Harvard Business School’s MENA and Central Asia Research Center and a trustee of the Bogazici University Foundation.

Richard D. Phillips

Dean, J. Mack Robinson College of Business
Georgia State University

Richard Phillips is the seventh dean of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Since 2014 he has overseen the school’s transformation to produce graduates ready to deliver value in the digital era by investing in STEM areas and integrating them into core activities. Students now connect these analytical skills with business concepts that allow them to innovate in rapidly changing environments.

Dean Phillips is the C.V. Starr Professor of Risk Management & Insurance. He has produced more than 50 scholarly publications and received several research awards. He is a corporate director at Munich American Reassurance Corporation, senior consultant with Charles River Associates, past president of the American Risk & Insurance Association and the Risk Theory Society, trustee for the S.S. Huebner Foundation, board member for the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, and board chair emeritus for The Swift School – a private school serving dyslexic children in Georgia.