LONDON (AdAge.com) -- Coca-Cola has appointed Jonathan Mildenhall, strategy director at London-based Coke agency Mother, to the post of VP-global marketing to coordinate and pull together the "Coke side of life" campaign in every market and across every channel.

Esther Lee
Mr. Mildenhall will work with all of Coca-Cola's advertising and marketing agencies and will work on all Coca-Cola brands, overseeing the soft-drink giant's multibillion-dollar marketing budget and working very closely with Esther Lee, the marketer's chief creative officer.

A Coke spokesman in U.S. would only confirm that an offer has been made to Mr. Mildenhall.

Mr. Mildenhall will relocate from London to Atlanta in January 2006. A fast-rising young agency executive in the U.K., he joined Mother in October 2005 with a brief to build the independent agency strategically and raise its international profile, working across all aspects of the business. He was previously managing director of TBWA, London, but left the post in March 2005 to attend Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program.

Mr. Mildenhall, who was on a plane from London to Atlanta this morning, could not immediately be reached for comment.

'Significant player'
Andy Medd, a partner at Mother, said, "It's great that Coca-Cola looks to us for talent and we are delighted for Jonathan, but we had not exactly planned on his leaving -- he is a significant player for us."

Mother is currently finalizing Coke's pan-European Christmas campaign. The agency works on a whole portfolio of Coca-Cola brands in the U.K. and Europe, including Coke, Schweppes, Fanta, Oasis, Dr Pepper and Lilt. Mother's New York office, which opened in 2003, handles Coca-Cola's Full Throttle energy drink.