Keurig Dr Pepper Chief Commercial Officer Derek Hopkins has been as close as anyone to the merger of Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple. Hopkins served as chief integration officer for the transaction and before that was president of Keurig Green Mountain’s US business. His experience in the global beverage industry is deep, with stints at Coca-Cola, AB InBev, Bacardi and Guiness Diageo. The following is a recap of his Future Smarts conference interview in Dec. 9 in New York.

In October, Simon Lowden was named PepsiCo’s first chief sustainability officer. The job made sense for Lowden, whose 23 years at PepsiCo has included leadership posts in food, beverage and international. Lowden’s most recent prior role was as president of PepsiCo Global Foods. Previous roles have included chief marketing officer for PepsiCo North America Beverages and before that PepsiCo International.

This story is a recap of highlights from his Future Smarts conference appearance Dec. 9 in New York.

Coke CEO James Quincey joined Future Smarts after a visit that morning to the New York Stock Exchange, where he and other executives celebrated Coca-Cola’s 100th anniversary as a public company by ringing the opening bell. Quincey now is in his third year as CEO of Coke. He was additionally named chairman of the board in April. Quincey joined Coke in 1996 and has spent the majority of his career in Latin America and then Europe before becoming COO under former CEO Muhtar Kent in August of 2015. Quincey’s focus as CEO has been to grow brand Coke while diversifying the company’s portfolio to everything from coffee drinks to plant-based offerings. Early this year, he closed on the acquisition of UK-based Costa Coffee, a chain of cafés stretching across Europe...

This story is a recap of highlights from his Future Smarts conference appearance Dec. 9 in New York.

Katherine Lugar has been busy during her first year as president and CEO of the American Beverage Association. In October, she hosted the organization’s 100th anniversary celebration and advocacy summit in Washington DC, which included hundreds of beverage industry executives from across the US. Following months of negotiation and planning, Lugar also announced “Every Bottle Back,” which is the first collaboration between Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Keurig Dr Pepper to reduce plastic waste (BD 11/13/19). The initiative incorporates expertise from the World Wildlife Fund, the Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners. Next week, Lugar will present at BD’s Future Smarts conference in New York. We caught up with Lugar to discuss the past year and priorities for 2020. The following has been edited for clarity and space:

Beverage incubator LA Libations has sold a 49% investment stake to Molson Coors. The brewer wants to diversify its beverage portfolio to include more non-alcoholic offerings as beer sales lag. Coca-Cola had a 25% stake in LA Libations before

Coca-Cola and its bottlers made a number of key sustainability announcements around the world in recent weeks as the system looks to respond to consumer demand and stave off forced regulation. In Southeast Asia, the company said it will

PepsiCo has signed a letter of intent to purchase independent Pepsi bottler Bridge 2 Bridge Beverages, based in Bremerton, Washington west of Seattle. The acquisition of the