Thomas Benford

Thomas N. Benford is President and Chief Operating Officer of Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (Coke Florida.) As President of the local Coca-Cola bottler operating in Florida, he leads an organization with over 4600 associates who serve 21 million consumers and deliver 114 million cases of Coca-Cola products annually. Mr. Benford’s oversight extends across the end-to end business, including commercial operations, planning, revenue growth management, customer management, field sales, product supply, risk management, sustainability, and facilities management.

Prior to his appointment to President in 2021, Mr. Benford served as Coke Florida’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer leading the integrated commercial organization, managing the delivery of enterprise-wide strategies and capability building. He was an early member of the team that helped launch the fully integrated Coca-Cola bottler, which has an exclusive sales and distribution territory that serves 47 counties across Florida. At startup in 2015, he became Vice President of Strategy and Planning.

Thomas N. Benford’s career includes tenure with the Halliburton Company, where he served as Marketing and Development Manager of Baroid Fluid Services and Corporate Finance Manager. Before Halliburton, he was an Investment Banking Analyst in the leveraged finance group at J.P. Morgan Chase. His passions for business and economic development have led him to serve as a member of Enterprise Florida.

Mr. Benford holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and undergraduate degrees in Economics and Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University.