Coca-Cola Enterprises (NYSE: CCE) today announced the Company’s board of directors has elected Garry Watts as director, effective immediately.

Mr. Garry Watts, 53, was elected to the Coca-Cola Enterprises Board of Directors earlier today. (Photo: Business Wire)

Mr. Watts, 53, most recently served as chief executive officer for the British consumer healthcare products company SSL International. While there, he led the company’s successful turnaround, resulting in its recently-completed sale to Reckitt Benckiser. Mr. Watts joined SSL International in 2001, where he served as the company’s group finance director before being named CEO in 2004. From 1996 to 1999, he was the group finance director of Medeva plc. Following Medeva’s merger with Celltech in 1999, he became chief executive officer of Celltech Medeva, the manufacturing, selling and marketing division of Celltech Group. Prior to that, he held various roles at KPMG, including partner and national head of KPMG’s healthcare and life sciences practice.

“Garry’s experience in the European fast-moving consumer goods industry and his extensive accounting and financial expertise will provide tremendous value to our board of directors,” said John F. Brock, chairman and chief executive officer, Coca-Cola Enterprises. “We are pleased to have Garry join our board and look forward to benefiting from his knowledge and perspective of leading an international business in our operating territories.”

Mr. Watts will serve on the Finance and Audit Committees of CCE’s board of directors. He currently serves on the board of directors at Stagecoach Group, where he is senior independent director and chairman of the Audit Committee, and previously served on the boards of Celltech Group, Medeva and Protherics. From 1991 to 2008, Mr. Watts was a non-executive member of the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency Board and chairman of its Audit and Risk Committee. He is also a former member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Corporate Governance Committee. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1981 and became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales in 1986.

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. is the leading Western European marketer, distributor, and producer of bottle and can liquid nonalcoholic refreshment and the world’s third-largest independent Coca-Cola bottler. CCE is the sole licensed bottler for products of The Coca-Cola Company in Belgium, continental France, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. For more information about our company, please visit our website at www.cokecce.com.

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