Annella Heytens, VP Human Resources APJC at Cisco has stepped down from her role after working with the company for eleven years. She has joined Coca-cola as Chief People Officer of their Bottling Investments Group reporting to Calin Dragan, President and CEO, Coca-Cola, BIG.  She will continue to be based in Singapore. 

Talking exclusively to People Matters about her stint with Cisco she mentioned her time in Cisco was life-changing.  She moved from the U.S working for Willis Towers Wyatt to Bangalore to work for Cisco in 2007.   She was in Bangalore during the 2007-2008 during the financial crisis and ended up with five roles. 

 “I started out as a global head of compensation for Services business and then assumed four other roles – head of C&B for the Asia Pacific, head of C&B for Japan, head of CSR, and head of mobility for the region as all our requisitions were canceled due to the crisis.”

Sharing more about her stint with Cisco, she mentioned the focus on people, culture, performance, innovation, continuous learning and being inclusive and diverse are some of the things she liked most about Cisco.  “I am proud to say we have become the most diverse leadership in Cisco. We have also become 'Great Place To Work' (GPTW) in so many locations, she added.”  

She has also worked on upskilling the workforce through a very rigid roadmap to improve the HR team’s ability to be part of the business conversations and took the group through a variety of development workshops and programs to make them perfect. 

In her new role at Coca-Cola, she will be focusing on four key people initiatives. 

1. Enabling Growth Strategies (for example through performance systems, reward strategies, etc.).
   
   
2. Enhancing the talent pipeline (for example through talent acquisitions strategies, high potential pipeline development plans, etc.).
   
   
3. Evolving the business (for example through technology, structural change, etc.).
   
   
4. Upskilling the HR talent for the future of work.