The Coca-Cola Company has appointed Rishav Gandhi as Vice President, People & Culture for Eurasia and Middle East. Gandhi will lead people strategy and culture priorities across the markets covered by his new remit.
Gandhi shared the appointment on LinkedIn on 21 September 2026. He said he was starting a new position as Vice President, People & Culture, Eurasia and Middle East at The Coca-Cola Company.
Rishav Gandhi’s new People & Culture role
Gandhi’s new role covers people and culture priorities across Eurasia and the Middle East. His responsibilities include talent development and organisational effectiveness.
He will also support broader business priorities across the markets within his remit. The role builds on his experience in people strategy, talent development, performance management and rewards.
Gandhi has held several People & Culture leadership positions at The Coca-Cola Company. Before this appointment, he served as Vice President, People & Culture for the company’s Global Marketing and McDonald’s Division.
In that role, Gandhi led people strategy and culture for the division. His earlier Coca-Cola roles included Senior Director, Talent & Development for Latin America and Director of Talent Innovation.
Gandhi’s experience in talent and organisational strategy
As Director of Talent Innovation, Gandhi worked across several areas of workforce strategy. His responsibilities included talent strategy, future of work, agile ways of working and leadership models.
He also worked on performance management in the role. The experience adds to his background in organisational effectiveness and talent development.
Before joining Coca-Cola, Gandhi worked as a management consultant at Deloitte. His work focused on strategic human capital and operating model challenges for large organisations.
Gandhi also spent more than seven years at Airtel. During that period, he held roles across total rewards, organisational effectiveness, performance and rewards, HR analytics, organisation design and talent management.
At Airtel, Gandhi led the total rewards function for the company’s Pan Africa operations across 17 countries. His work covered compensation, performance management, executive rewards and benefits.
Academic background
Gandhi holds an MBA in Strategy and Decision Science from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He also holds an MBA in HR from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.
His career has therefore spanned people strategy, talent development, organisational design and rewards. His latest appointment brings these areas into a regional People & Culture leadership role covering Eurasia and the Middle East.
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