India, 22nd January 2025: – Coca-Cola India Southwest Asia (INSWA) Operating Unit today announced Desmond Nikhil D’Souza as Customer & Commercial Leadership (C&CL), effective February 1, 2025. He succeeds Greishma Singh, who recently transitioned to the role of Vice President, Marketing.
“With a distinguished track record of strategic vision and exemplary leadership in the FMCG industry, Desmond brings a wealth of experience and innovative ideas that align perfectly with our mission to drive customer satisfaction and commercial excellence,” said Sanket Ray, President, Coca-Cola India Southwest Asia. “His understanding of market dynamics and customer engagement, will be a cornerstone in achieving our growth objectives.”
In his new role, Desmond will be responsible for leading the C&CL function across INSWA, focusing on driving value growth, strengthening our customer partnerships, and aligning strategies to deliver long-term commercial transformation.
Desmond joins Coca-Cola from Mondelez, where he served as Vice President, Sales. Under his leadership Mondelez India grew significantly through footprint expansion, driving digital innovation in sales, and incubating and building new commercial capabilities to drive growth. Before his tenure at Mondelez, Desmond held key roles at PepsiCo, both in transformation initiatives and sales leadership. At Zomato, he contributed to customer subscription strategy, showcasing his ability to operate across diverse sectors and functions.
Desmond holds a postgraduate management degree from XLRI Jamshedpur and a bachelor’s degree in engineering (BE) from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU).