Bayes Business School is delighted to welcome back alumnus Muhtar Kent, retired Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, 50 years after his graduation, to deliver the annual flagship lecture for the Faculty of Management as part of the Dean's Lecture Series.
The event will be chaired by Professor Caroline Wiertz, Professor of Marketing, Bayes Business School.
Lecture Overview
Mr. Kent will reflect on five decades of global business leadership—contrasting the world of 1976 with today’s rapidly accelerating landscape of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum computing.
While technological innovation has transformed how we live and work, Mr. Kent’s central message will highlight that the foundational principles of effective leadership remain unchanged. Grounded in trust, judgment, courage, empathy, and values, true leadership relies on human wisdom that technology alone cannot replicate.
Drawing on his 45-year career shaping global strategy at Coca-Cola, Mr. Kent will examine the vital connection between corporate reputation and authentic leadership:
"A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept. The same principle applies to leadership."
As AI and Quantum technologies provide organisations with unprecedented computational power, Mr. Kent will emphasise that intelligence itself is no longer the sole differentiator—wisdom, ethics, and human responsibility are.
The Challenge to the Bayes Generation
This address serves as both an inspiration and a challenge to future leaders. Mr. Kent will urge the next generation to embrace change, commit to lifelong learning, protect their personal and professional reputations, and never confuse financial success with true significance.
He will leave attendees with a defining question for our technological age:
"The most important question is not simply what AI or Quantum computing can do, but what will we do with the extraordinary power these technologies place in our hands?"
Because ultimately, technology does not shape the future—people do, leadership does, and values do.
Muhtar Kent, Retired Chairman & CEO, The Coca-Cola Company
Muhtar Kent is the retired Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, where his distinguished career spanned more than four decades. After joining the company in 1978, he held various senior operational and international leadership positions. He was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer in 2006, elevated to CEO in 2008, and served as Chairman and CEO from 2009 through April 2017. He officially retired as Chairman of the Board in April 2019.
Mr. Kent holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Hull in England and a Master of Science in Administrative Sciences from Cass Business School in London.
Throughout his career, Mr. Kent has maintained a deep commitment to higher education, international cooperation, and sustainable global growth. He is the Founding Donor of the Kent Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution at Columbia University and the Former Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bayes Business School (formerly Cass Business School). Additionally, he is a past Chairman of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and currently serves on the boards of Emory University and the Cambridge University China Development Trust.
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