Malibu’s Pepperdine University announced Thursday that Deryck J. van Rensburg, former president of global ventures at Coca-Cola Co., will take over as the dean of the Graziadio School of Business on Nov. 1.

Van Rensberg was selected after an exhaustive two-year search due to his mix of academic and corporate experience, according to Rick Marrs, provost and chief academic officer at the university.

“We believe his experience will help push the business school’s national ranking up as well as advance our goals to have greater global recognition and reach in the future,” said Marrs.

Van Rensburg succeeds Dave Smith as dean of the business school.