Christopher Gaunt

Chairman, British-Turkish Chamber of Commerce, Turkey

Chris is from Turkey.

Christopher Gaunt is a highly accomplished and respected businessman with invaluable international experience across a number of key business sectors. Having graduated in UK with a degree in Modern History, he began his career in 1973 in the Wine and Spirit Division of the Whitbread Brewery Group, and went on to work in prominent UK Beverage companies progressing to senior management positions with HP Bulmer and Allied Domecq.

In 1992 Christopher embarked on his International career and moved to Croatia as a consultant with Coopers and Lybrand to work on a major restructuring project for a newly privatized group of FMCG companies. In 1994 he joined Coca-Cola initially in Croatia, followed by Senior Management/GM positions in Eastern Europe and start-up operations in Central Asia. From 1999 to 2000 Mr. Gaunt served as CEO of Panonska Pivovara Croatia (Carlsberg International) prior to joining the Efes Beverage Group; a subsidiary of Istanbul based Anadolu Holdings, as the General Manager of operations in Bulgaria. He was later appointed President of Efes Invest (Anadolu/Coca-Cola joint venture) in 2001, responsible for Coca-Cola Bottling operations in South Caucasus, Central Asia and Middle East.

Following the merger in 2005 of Efes Invest and Coca-Cola Icecek (CCI) Turkey and the subsequent IPO, he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the newco. In 2007 Mr. Gaunt was appointed President of CCI International Operations (10 countries) from which position he retired from CCI in 2010. He then set up his own consultancy company “Euroasia Consultancy” based in Istanbul.