Claude Nielsen is the former CEO and chairman of the board of Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED, Inc. After earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from Sewanee: The University of the South, an MBA from the University of Virginia, and a brief Birmingham banking career, Nielsen joined Coca-Cola UNITED in 1979. He held a variety of operational and managerial positions in the company until he was named CEO in 1991 and later chairman of the board of directors in 2003. Under Nielsen’s leadership, Coca-Cola UNITED more than tripled the size and scope of the company in terms of revenues, geography, number of associates, and facilities. Birmingham-based Coca-Cola UNITED is among the largest bottlers and distributors of Coca-Cola products in the U.S. With over $4 billion in annual revenues, it is also one of the largest privately held companies in Alabama. Nielsen retired as CEO in 2016 and as chairman in 2023.
Over the course of his career, Nielsen was often asked if he knew the secret Coca-Cola formula. “I can answer that question with a simple two letter word,” he said in an address to the Newcomen Society of Alabama in 2017. “No.”
But that’s not entirely true. According to a nomination letter by current Coca-Cola UNITED President and CEO Michael A. Suco, while Nielsen may not know the secret CocaCola formula, he knows Coca-Cola UNITED’s secret ingredients. “As one of the architects of the U.S. Coca-Cola system as it stands today,” Suco wrote of Nielsen, “his incredible system knowledge and commitment to our associates, consumers, customers and communities are foundational to our success. No one believes in and lives our purpose and values more than Claude. He has always valued our associates and our brands as the ‘secret ingredients’ to our success.”
Upon his nomination to the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame in 2022, Nielsen told The Over the Mountain Journal, “Any success I’ve enjoyed as a business leader must be shared with the thousands of associates within the Coca-Cola UNITED family who made leading this great enterprise a real privilege over the years.”
Today, Coca-Cola UNITED has more than 10,000 associates located in more than 50 facilities across six southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee). The company’s operations consist of state-of-the-art sales and distribution centers, along with eight manufacturing facilities serving more than 150,000 customers across their footprint. Historically significant franchises within the Coca-Cola UNITED family include Chattanooga, the world’s first Coca-Cola bottler; Atlanta, home of the worldwide Coca-Cola system; and Columbus, Georgia, development site of the original Coca-Cola formula.
Nielsen has served as a board member and chairman of the American Beverage Association, the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, and The Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Association. He has devoted time and energy supporting community causes like the United Way of Central Alabama, the Birmingham Airport Authority Board, and the American Cancer Society. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Business Alliance.
Nielsen was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2016. In addition, he and his wife, Kate, were recognized by the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America in 2017 with the “Heart of an Eagle” award for their community service, and they were named Outstanding Civic Leaders by the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2021.
The Nielsens have three children and nine grandchildren and reside in Birmingham.
