Coke CMO Melanie Boulden Moves to Tyson Foods

Coca-Cola’s North America CMO Melanie Boulden is departing the Atlanta-based conglomerate for a new role at Tyson Foods where she will serve as EVP, Chief Growth Officer.

In a press release, Tyson stated Boulden will assume the newly created role on February 6 and will report directly to president and CEO Donnie King. Boulden will be responsible for “all aspects of global brand marketing,” overseeing “consumer and corporate branding, innovation, R&D, communications, and consumer insights and analytics” for the company’s entire brand portfolio.

“Melanie is an exceptional talent and a proven leader in growing global household brand businesses. She has the creative, operational, and financial experience to drive value creation across Tyson Foods’ brand portfolio,” King said in the release. “The introduction of the new Chief Growth Officer role will allow Melanie to develop a world-class center of excellence around brand marketing that will be critical as Tyson Foods continues to focus on future growth.”

“It’s an honor to join one of the world’s largest food companies as they look to continue their growth trajectory, execute the OneTyson strategy, and drive positive change,” Boulden wrote in a LinkedIn post this week. “I’m inspired by the company’s mission, team members, culture and tremendous portfolio of brands.”

Boulden joined Coca-Cola in 2019 as president and general manager of its Venturing & Emerging Brands (VEB) unit, following the departure of previous unit leader Scott Uzzell. In 2020, Boulden moved into the role of President, Still Beverages Business Unit before assuming the CMO, North America position in January 2021.

Prior to Coke, Boulden served as global head of marketing and brand management for Reebok and also held roles at Crayola, Kraft Foods Group and Henkel. Since 2020 she has been a member of the board of directors at software manufacturer Adobe.

During Boulden’s tenure at Coke, the company underwent a strategic shift away from venture investment in smaller brands, instead opting to invest in its strongest portfolio products while divesting and discontinuing underperforming products. In her LinkedIn post, Boulden acknowledged the company’s growth and evolution, thanking the North American marketing team for its role in guiding the company through the pandemic.

“To the Coca-Cola North America marketing organization, THANK YOU! We’ve worked together through many challenges—Covid-19 pandemic, largest re-structure in TCCC’s history, and a new global agency model—all while we were achieving outstanding results along the way,” she wrote. “Together as a team, we restored our core brands to double-digit growth, modernized our marketing communications strategy, delivered winning innovation, and recruited the next generation of consumers.”

Last month, Coke appointed longtime team member Shakir Moin as head of marketing for North America, effective January 1. Moin joined the company as a brand director of Coca-Cola in 2010 and since 2019 he has held leadership positions at Costa Coffee, most recently as interim CEO.

Boulden joins Tyson as the brand reported record sales to over $53.2 billion in its fiscal year 2022 earnings report last month, despite flat or declining volumes for its beef, pork and prepared foods businesses.

Boulden and Tyson Foods did not immediately return requests for comment for this story.