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James Quincey

Executive Chairman, Coca-Cola Company (The)

Search every verified James Quincey interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola, appeared on CNBC's Squawk Pod on March 26, 2026, to discuss his tenure and the company's future as he prepared to hand over leadership to his successor, Henrique Braun. Quincey reflected on his 30 years at the company, including nine as CEO, and described the Coca-Cola business as a "vast enterprise" operating in nearly every country with a global workforce of 700,000 employees. He characterized the business as a "relationship business" and a "physical business in the physical world," noting that understanding the landscape of over a thousand factories in the Coke system is a "tremendous advantage" for a leader. Quincey recalled an early moment in his leadership when he said, "Coke doesn't have to be your favorite beverage," which he described as "blasphemy" that prompted a "sharp intake of breath" from the audience. He also discussed the role of technology at Coca-Cola, stating, "We're not a tech company, but we need to use that technology to take our competitive advantage to another level." Quincey said his successor brings "that passion and insight and energy" to that effort.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“If you can come up with smart regulation that makes an economic system work, you can then get over the sustainability problem. If you try and do it as one company and you compete against people who don't, you're going to start losing market share.”

“The first thing to know about the beverage industry in the data: it's an industry that keeps growing. If you did a histogram of the average growth three years going back for 30 years, basically the industry grows at 4% every year. Consumption of commercial beverages tracks disposable income.”

“The bit that goes with that is knowing what you actually are good at and sticking to your own swim lane. By doing that and resisting the temptation to do someone else's business, we grew faster and they grew faster.”

“One of the first things we did was 'lean center' — reducing the size of the corporate office because it was too big and we were expending too many resources with too little output. The head office needs to be a lot smaller, and once you do that you can redirect those resources to growth and really drive the business.”

“Uh my view would be that free trade deals are good overall for all participants and I think it's been good for North America and all the countries all the countries in it. But I don't think we should start uh u deconstructing global trade.”

“I mean our tax rate last year effectively was about 24%. So it's not the biggest change to us because we're an international company.”

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