By Harry R. Weber
The Associated Press

The Coca-Cola Co. on Tuesday named one of its former executives as new chairman and chief executive, ending months of speculation over who would lead the world's largest beverage maker.

The Atlanta-based company tapped E. Neville Isdell - who had led the company's European operations and retired in 2001 after running a Coca-Cola bottling company - to succeed Doug Daft. Daft said in February he would retire at the end of the year.

The company had considered outside candidates for the top job for the first time in its 118-year-old history. Among them was Procter & Gamble Co. vice chairman Kerry Clark, 52, who is P&G's president of market development and business operations.

"We concluded that our ideal candidate was an executive who combined a deep prior knowledge of our brand, our values, and our system," said Donald Keough, who led the search team.

An Irish citizen, Isdell, 60, joined the Coca-Cola system in Zambia in 1966. After holding positions in South Africa, Australia, and the Philippines, he was named president of the company's Central European Division in 1985.

In 1995 he was named president of the Greater Europe Group, comprising territories accounting for nearly one-third of the company's worldwide profits. Isdell left the company in 1998 to serve as chairman of Coca-Cola Beverages, which went public that year.

Isdell negotiated a merger with Hellenic Bottling Co. in 2000 to form Coca-Cola HBC, at the time the world's second-largest Coca-Cola bottler, and became its chief executive officer. He left at the end of 2001.

Shares in Coca-Cola fell 35 cents to close at $50.27 on the New York Stock Exchange, then fell 2 cents more in extended trading.