Coca-Cola elevates Rishav Gandhi to VP – People & Culture for Eurasia and Middle East

The Coca-Cola Company has elevated Rishav Gandhi to Vice President – People & Culture, Eurasia and Middle East, effective August 2026. In his expanded role, Gandhi will lead people and culture priorities across the region, with a focus on talent development, organisational effectiveness and broader people strategy.

Gandhi, who is based in Türkiye, takes on the regional mandate after nearly eight years with Coca-Cola. Most recently, he served as Vice President – People & Culture for Global Marketing and the McDonald’s Division, a role he held from April 2023. There, he led people strategy and culture initiatives supporting some of the company’s key global businesses.

His Coca-Cola journey began with a role in talent innovation. From January 2019 to February 2021, he served as Director – Talent Innovation, where his responsibilities included talent strategy and future-of-work models. He subsequently became Senior Director – Talent & Development, Latin America,

leading talent and development strategy for the Latin America Operating Unit from February 2021 to April 2023.

Before joining Coca-Cola, Gandhi spent nearly three years with Deloitte US as a management consultant, advising organisations on strategic human capital and operating-model challenges. His earlier career included more than seven years with Airtel, where he held roles spanning HR business partnering, HR analytics, organisation design, performance and rewards, and total rewards.

At Airtel, Gandhi eventually became Director – Total Rewards & Organisation Effectiveness, overseeing total rewards for the company’s Pan-Africa operations across 17 countries. His experience across multiple markets has given him exposure to talent management, organisational effectiveness, performance management, executive rewards and people strategy.

Academically, Gandhi holds an MBA in Human Resources from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, and an MBA in Strategy and Decision Science from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

The new appointment expands Gandhi’s responsibilities from a global functional mandate to a regional leadership role covering Eurasia and the Middle East, adding another chapter to his career in international people and organisational leadership.