FMI Honors Sandy Douglas
Coca-Cola executive receives award for industry relations excellence
The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) has honored J. Alexander “Sandy” M. Douglas Jr., executive vice president, The Coca-Cola Company, and president, Coca-Cola North America, with its William H. Albers Award for Industry Relations.
At a gala at its midwinter conference in Miami, FMI President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin called Douglas “a stalwart champion and courageous leader of industry causes,” adding that “he willingly takes on the thorniest issues within our supply chain.”
Douglas has been a catalyst for large-scale transformational change and is perhaps best known for his commitment to data quality and data synchronization in the world of e-commerce. The Albers award celebrates excellence in trading partner relations and consumer and community service, areas where Douglas earns high praise.
Upon recognition, Douglas said, “I’m incredibly grateful and honored to receive this prestigious award on behalf of the entire Coca-Cola System. This award is about the partnerships and actions that we have taken together as an industry to advance the quality, speed and effectiveness of our service to our customers.”
Mark Baum, FMI’s chief collaboration officer and senior vice president of industry relations, noted that Douglas has made a significant commitment to industry standards, particularly in supply chain and technology communication. His peers suggest that Douglas is a natural leader when confronting tough issues.
Danny Wegman, chief executive officer of Wegmans Food Markets, said in a video testimonial, “It’s pretty hard not to like Sandy. He loves to smile, and that draws everyone in.”
Wegman continued, “Good relations have always been important to Coke, so Sandy was an excellent choice to represent the company. It was in the early 2000s that I got to see another side of Sandy: Various groups had sprung up to synchronize data for the industry. I was quite puzzled why various groups were trying to provide a single source of the truth. Fortunately, Sandy agreed with me.”
The result was a consumer packaged goods industry data hub, which is now known as 1WorldSync, part of the GS1 family of companies.
Douglas continues to invest in ways to further engage efficient and effective business relations. For nearly the last 30 years, Douglas has been dedicated to the serving the customer — and shopper and trading partner — at Coca-Cola.
He is active in beverage and consumer product industry organizations, serving on the boards of the American Beverage Association, FMI, GMA and the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. He also serves on the charity leadership boards of the East Lake Foundation and Morehouse College.