As the director, mergers and acquisitions for the Atlanta, GA-based Coca-Cola Company, coca-colacompany.com/careers, Marie Quintero-Johnson - a mother of two and the daughter of Cuban immigrants - oversees all global acquisitions and divestiture activities. She manages a team of 25 that assists her in evaluating and executing all merger, acquisition and divestiture transactions of the corporation on a global level. Additionally, Quintero-Johnson oversees competitive insights and corporate real estate.

“My job changes almost every day, so I never get bored,” she says. “There’s always a new company to learn about, a new opportunity to seek or new challenge to find a solution for, which really excites me.”

Quintero-Johnson has been with Coca-Cola for almost 25 years. She began as a financial analyst for Coca-Cola’s Latin America financial services group. She worked her way up through the company’s finance organization, through treasury, business development for Latin America and assistant to the CFO. During her tenure in her current role, she’s completed $20 billion-plus worth of investments in more than 100 countries.

A graduate of Georgetown University who received her MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Quintero-Johnson advises college grads entering the workforce to “make sure you love what you do, or it will likely show in your work. And in each position you have along your career path, make sure you extract as much knowledge as possible at the time because you’re not likely to go back and do that job again.”

Make sure your integrity remains intact, too: “No one should ever have to question the motives for your decisions or actions. That’s always been my beacon. I believe the people that work with me understand I do my best to make the right decisions for the shareowners of our company.”

Grateful for the support and encouragement of her parents, who received their college degrees when Quintero-Johnson was growing up, she’s “had the good fortune to have received an excellent education that positioned me to succeed working for an incredible company.” In fact, she recently told USA Today The Coca-Cola Company “pulls you in.”

She elaborates: “It embraces you, gives you something to believe in as a company and presents a world of opportunities. Coca-Cola is not just about the products we sell, but about what the company represents and contributes in all of the communities where we do business.”

Quintero-Johnson, who grew up in Miami, adds: “I’m honored to be presented as role model or an example of what can be achieved with education, commitment and hard work.”