Coca-Cola hires Meta's Katherina Jawaharlal to lead global corporate, brand PR

The Coca-Cola Company has hired Katherina Jawaharlal as VP of global corporate and brand PR.

Jawaharlal started in the role on Monday and she reports to Angela Zuluaga, the company’s VP of global communications, she told PRWeek via email.

In her new role, Jawaharlal will be leading a team and delivering all aspects of the company’s global corporate, brand PR, marketing communications and channel strategy, including oversight of digital channels and corporate social media.

“I am thrilled to be part of this iconic company and looking forward to working with incredible powerhouse leader [Zuluaga] and the impressive team at Coca-Cola,” said Jawaharlal in a statement.

Previously, Jawaharlal was a senior director of communications at Meta. During her eight years there, she built and ran the partnership communications team and was responsible for all content, crisis, executive and proactive PR related to media, sports and entertainment, creators, public figures and cultural events across the family of apps and services, which include Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and AR/VR.

Notably, Jawaharlal launched cult favorite Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch with Jada Pinkett Smith.

“I was part of the small communications team responsible for the Meta rebrand and led efforts in the engagement of nontraditional storytelling (i.e., with meme creators),” Jawaharlal said in a statement.

She exited Meta in August.

Earlier in her career, Jawaharlal was an account director at Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis; and she worked on the editorial team for The Huffington Post’s impact and education content, according to her LinkedIn profile.

For Q3, Coca-Cola reported that its adjusted sales rose 8% to $11.9 billion. Organic revenue, which strips out the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, climbed 11%. The company also reported net income attributable to shareholders of $3.09 billion in the quarter, up from $2.83 billion a year earlier.