Eric Thompson

Eric Thompson served as Board Member and Group CFO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies from 2023 to 2024. Liquid, headquartered in London, is a multi-billion dollar, privately-held business operating the most expansive fiber optics network on the African Continent. Eric advised the board on strategic financing decisions, interfaced with rating agencies and bond investors, and led the long-term planning process. 

Eric lived abroad for more than 20 years as he led Finance for the Coca-Cola Company in many developing markets. Eric served as Director of Financial Operations in Asia from 2017 to 2020 transforming the region’s core financial functions into a streamlined and efficient operation.  Between 2005 and 2017, Eric served as CFO for Coca-Cola throughout Sub Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Coke’s sixth most profitable market globally. Under his leadership, revenue growth accelerated substantially with implementation of a brand building framework to accelerate financial returns, expansion of the product portfolio, and making manufacturing and marketplace investments. This was done while overseeing the internal control environment across 40 countries. 

During his 12 years in Sub-Saharan Africa, Eric played a significant role in consolidating multiple bottling operations to form Coca-Cola Beverages SA, the tenth largest Coca-Cola bottler globally. He drove the proforma financial process and presented the transaction merits to South African government officials for approval. 

Early in his career, Eric served as CFO for Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in the Czech Republic, and headed Business Planning for CCB, Coke’s first publicly-traded entity on the London Stock Exchange. He began his career with Price Waterhouse and Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh. 

Eric holds degrees from Towson University (BS) and Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School of Public Policy (MS), and completed executive programs at Wharton and Harvard Business School.