MUMBAI: Keeping with developing business needs and investment in talent development, Coca-Cola India has made two-key changes at its top management. It has appointed Sarvita Sethi as vice-president, merger, and acquisitions (M&A) and new ventures, and Harsh Bhutani as vice president - finance (CFO),  for Coca-Cola India and southwest Asia. The appointments will be effective from 1 August.

Sethi, who was earlier VP finance India and southwest Asia, had become the first woman to head the company’s finances for the region. In her new role, she will be responsible for the firm’s crucial incubator, which involves conceptualising, developing and launching new products relevant to the market, besides scaling up these new brands or products until they can be managed by general marketing and sales teams.

Sethi is a chartered accountant with more than 15 years of experience in corporate finance, and had worked for Sainsbury’s and Viacom in London before joining Coca-Cola in 2008.

She is known for her “results-oriented” mindset and her expertise in financial operations of fast-moving consumer goods firms. Her journey in the professional world began as an audit manager for the global audit and consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCooper in London in 1996. Before joining the professional world, Sethi went to City University London to finish her Bachelor’s in Science degree in economics and accountancy in 1995.

Bhutani, a veteran at Coke’s bottling arm Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages will take over from Sethi. Before joining HCCB in 1999, he was with Swiss industrial products and solutions conglomerate - Asea Brown Boveri.

A chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Bhutani has earned a name for himself, among his friends and colleagues, as an efficient business planner.