Gayton arrived at Coca-Cola's Atlanta headquarters in September 2020, following a nearly 30-year career at The Ford Motor Co., where he last served as chief lawyer. In late January, Gayton announced that Coca-Cola planned to penalize outside law firms that failed to meet new diversity guidelines by slashing their fees or cutting ties with them altogether.

"He's a diversity champion. He wanted diversity. He wanted to make sure we hired enough Black outside counsel," said the source. "That was his big focus. But we could have focused on that in a year. What we needed to do was stand up the organization now. That's what he was hired for."

Coca-Cola declined to address the source's assertions. The company also has declined to comment on the factors surrounding Gayton's resignation, or on the fate of his nascent diversity initiative. Gayton, who now serves as a consultant to Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, has not responded to an interview request.

Earlier this year, Coca-Cola cut thousands of jobs and reduced the company's 17 business units to nine as part of a restructuring effort. According to the source, Gayton attempted to further consolidate the company's legal operations.

"There were structure issues that were never ironed out. You can see every other leader in every other group, their stuff is pretty ironed out, except ours," the source said. "We're still in flux from the restructure. Nobody knows what anybody does. That's how he left us."

Jason Winmill, managing partner at Boston-based consulting firm Argopoint, noted that new executives are "incredibly vulnerable" in normal circumstances, but even more so when they're taking over in the midst of great change, such as corporate restructuring in the middle of a pandemic. He agreed to speak generally, but not about Coca-Cola specifically.

"If the new captain takes over a ship, the best case scenario is he gets a couple cruises through relatively calm waters on sunny days," Winmill said. "A new leader that's suddenly on a ship that's thrown into a Category 4 hurricane is going to be at a significant disadvantage."

According to the source, Gayton's arrival at Coca-Cola was a surprise to members of the legal department, who'd expected that either Monica Howard Douglas or Ben Garren, both longtime in-house leaders at Coca-Cola, would be named top lawyer, following Bernhard Goepelt's retirement.

Douglas has now stepped up to serve as Gayton's successor, and Garren has joined a list of at least 10 other lawyers and paralegals who have recently exited Coca-Cola's legal department in Atlanta since Gayton's arrival. The departures include former associate general counsels Linda Spencer, and Todd Grice, who joined Bacardi Ltd. as the top lawyer. Attempts to speak with Spencer and Grice have not been successful.

"We've had a lot of lawyers leave. As soon as he [Gayton] came in, people were just voluntarily leaving," the source said.

On the morning of April 22, Quincey held a virtual global town hall outside the company's headquarters. During the address, he didn't mention Gayton's departure, but introduced Douglas as the new legal boss, according to the source.

Douglas is a former chief compliance officer and associate general counsel at Coca-Cola, where she has worked since 2004. The source described Douglas as well-liked within the company, and said members of the legal department are pleased with her appointment.

While Gayton is no longer employed at Coca-Cola, he has entered into a year-long contractual agreement to serve as a "strategic consultant" to Quincey and "drive certain key objectives."

As part of the agreement, Gayton will receive a $4 million sign-on payment and a monthly consulting fee of $666,666, beginning in May and ending April 2022, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Attempts to speak with him have been unsuccessful.

According to the source, Gayton quietly exited the company without addressing the legal department.

"He didn't tell us goodbye. We didn't even know he was leaving. How do you do that? You're a leader," the source said. "It shocks me that it happened so fast. It just doesn't shock me that he's gone."