Our People

Board of Directors

Position Name
Chairman Philipp H Gutsche
Chief Operating Officer (Southern Division) Jacques Vermeulen
Director Kevin Warren
Director Gerard Reidy
Director Dorothea Moors
Director Alexander Gutsche
Alternate Director Irial Finan (Alternate to Kevin Warren)
Alternate DirectorGary Fayard (Alternate to Gerard Reidy)

Executive Committee

Jacques Vermeulen – Chief Operating Officer (Southern Division)

Jacques Vermeulen
Jacques Vermeulen

A qualified Chartered Accountant (SA) and Chartered Management Accountant (London), Jacques joined Coca-Cola Sabco as Group Financial Accountant in 1995 after completing his articles with Price Waterhouse Coopers and Trevor Wait and Partners.

Since joining the Company, Jacques has held various operational and corporate finance roles. In 1998 he moved to the South African business as Regional Financial Manager and was promoted to Country Financial Manager in Coca-Cola Fortune a year later. He was appointed Group Financial Manager for Coca-Cola Sabco in 2004, a position that he held for three years before moving to the role of Group Chief Financial Officer in 2007. In his role as Chief Financial Officer, Jacques presided over group information systems, group procurement, treasury, taxation and business developments (mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance), operational finance and group governance. In January 2011, Jacques was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Southern Division.

Cathy Albertyn – Human Resources Director

Cathy Albertyn
Cathy Albertyn

Cathy started her career at Coca-Cola Sabco in 1992 as Head Office Personnel Manager with a BA Industrial Psychology and Sociology degree as well as a BA Honours Industrial Sociology and Group Dynamics.

Four years later in 1996, she moved to the role of Region HR Manager for Coca-Cola Fortune’s Southern Region and in 2003 took up the position as Group HR Services Manager.

In October of 2006 she was appointed as Group Manager: Human Resources, and subsequently moved to the role of Human Resources Director in July 2007, a role which she currently occupies. In her role as Human Resources Director, Cathy presides over Human Resources practices and strategies across the Group.

Cathy was appointed to the Board of Coca-Cola Fortune in January 2008.

Daryl Wilson – Group Supply Chain Director

Daryl Wilson
Daryl Wilson

Prior to joining Coca-Cola SABCO Daryl worked in the manufacturing sector of various dairy and related product companies and during this time completed various technical training qualifications which culminated more recently in the completion of his MBA.

Since joining the company in 1992 Daryl has held various technical positions starting as the production manager in our George factory and thereafter moved to Port Elizabeth as Operations Manager. In 1999 he was promoted to Country Demand Fulfillment Manager and held this position for just over 4 years. Daryl then moved to Tanzania for 10 months as Deputy General Manager and then in 2006 was promoted and moved to Kenya as Managing Director and remained there for three and a half years. During his time in Kenya he sat on the Nairobi Bottlers board as well as a number of other boards of subsidiary and related companies.

In July 2009 he moved back to PE to head Supply Chain as Group Supply Chain Director. In his current role Daryl looks after manufacturing, asset care, quality, distribution, warehousing, logistics and fleet and cooler maintenance.

Phil Humphreys – Chief Operating Officer (Northern Division)

Phil Humphreys
Phil Humphreys

With a strong background in international FMCG sales and marketing roles, Phil Humphreys joined Coca-Cola Sabco in September 2010 as the Chief Operating Officer of the Northern Division based in Dubai.

Phil has extensive experience in FMCG general management and has an
in-depth knowledge of Global Brand Development having grown leading brands such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Guinness, and an array of other leading brands within the Diageo and Nestle portfolios. He has led and spoken publically across the global sphere in the key areas of sales and marketing strategy, customer collaboration and ‘breakthrough’ performance, and has a real passion for pushing the boundaries and creating opportunities to drive extraordinary performance. Phil has completed the PED/MBA equivalent programme at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland as well as various other International Management and Executive Development Programs.

Phil joined Coca-Cola Sabco following a position as Managing Director of GTME for Diageo plc. Phil started his career in sales in 1991 with Rank Hovis McDougall before moving to the Nestlé family where he led the Pet Care Division as Sales Director. In 2001 he progressed to Nestlé Purina Pet Care Ltd as Commercial Director for the UK and Ireland. He delivered double digit growth and was promoted to Commercial Director for Northern Europe only a year later. His leadership abilities and keen business sense saw him promoted to Nestlé S.A. (Zone Europe) as Assistant Vice-President for European Sales reporting to Lars Olofsson (currently CEO of Carrefour) – a position Phil held from 2003 to mid 2004 before moving to the same group position for Global Sales and Customer Development.

Phil joined Diageo in 2005 from Nestlé, first as Global Sales & Capability Director and then as Commercial Director for Diageo Europe. In July 2008 he became Managing Director of Diageo Global Travel and Middle East (GTME), which was Diageo’s 5th biggest business unit and No 1 for its flagship brand, Johnnie Walker. The last year delivered record profits, market share and brand growth which was widely acknowledged in the external investors community in 2010.

In his new role as Chief Operating Officer at Coca-Cola Sabco (Northern Division), Phil will lead some exciting developing markets in the form of the franchises of Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Laos and Ethiopia. Reporting to Fanus Nothnagel, Phil is a member of the Coca-Cola Sabco Group Executive Committee.

Ian Garnett

Ian Garnett
Ian Garnett

Ian joined Coca-Cola Sabco in 2006 as the Finance Manager for the Asia Division based in Bangkok, subsequently the Northern Division. He played a key role as part of the division team that helped grow the Asian business significantly over a sustained period, and in January 2011 he was appointed to his current role as Chief Financial Officer.

Ian has a BA Hons Degree in Politics from the University of Nottingham in the UK and is a UK qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAEW). Following his articles in the UK he joined Price Waterhouse in Kenya where he became an audit manager prior to returning to the UK to run his family’s accounting practice.

Immediately prior to joining Coca-Cola Sabco, Ian had a 15 year career in finance within The Coca-Cola Company. He held a variety of positions primarily in Europe and Africa, joining as an international auditor based out of Atlanta. He was based in the UK and then in Nigeria as Region Finance Manager before moving to Belgium to establish a prototype Financial Services Centre. His final role was the Director of Finance and Strategy for the North West Africa Division based out of Morocco.

In his current role Ian presides over group information systems, group procurement, treasury, taxation, operational finance, group governance and business developments (mergers and acquisitions). He sits on the Coca-Cola main Board and the Boards of the various operating companies.