Sonya H. Soutus
Senior Vice President,
Public Affairs and Communications,
Coca-Cola North America

Sonya Soutus joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1996 as Region External Affairs Manager for Ukraine and Belarus, and has held a number of positions of increasing responsibility within the company’s communications and public affairs function. In September 2005 she became the Public Affairs and Communications Director in the Eastern Europe, Eurasia and Middle East Group.  In this role, she was responsible for managing the media relations and public affairs efforts across the countries of the Group. She was named Vice President and Director of Public Affairs and Communications for Coca-Cola International in March 2006.  When The Coca-Cola Company allocated Eurasia Group in its structure at the end of 2006, Mrs Soutus was designated to head Public Affairs in the Group at the position of Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications.

November 2008 she was named in her current roll, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications Coca-Cola North America.

After graduating with honors from the Duquesne University School of Journalism, Ms. Soutus began her professional career as a newspaper reporter.  She then held a number of public affairs and communications posts with major media organizations, including Westinghouse Broadcasting Corporation.  From 1988 to 1994, Ms. Soutus served in Rome and Ukraine as press secretary to the cardinal of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.  She then joined Burson-Marsteller Public Relations as an Account Group Director for its office in Ukraine.

Ms. Soutus speaks Ukrainian, Russian and several other Slavic languages, in addition to English and Italian.