Coca-Cola Chairman Dead At 65 Roberto C. Goizueta Fled Cuba And Found The American Dream

Coca-Cola Co. chief Roberto C. Goizueta, who left Communist Cuba with little more than a suitcase and became one of America’s most successful business leaders, died Saturday of lung cancer. He was 65.

“Perhaps no other corporate leader in modern times has so beautifully exemplified the American dream,” former President Jimmy Carter said. “He believed that in America, all things are possible. He lived that dream.”

Carter praised Goizueta, who worked with him in community and international projects, as an inspirational and “brilliant businessman, but also a generous humanitarian.”

“Roberto was a giant,” said John Sicher, editor and publisher of the trade journal Beverage Digest. “He was one of the most widely admired corporate executives of our time and also a gentleman and a wonderful human being.”

Coke’s chairman and chief executive officer since 1981, Goizueta was diagnosed with cancer in September. The heavy smoker resumed working as he underwent treatment but last week returned to the hospital at Emory University - a longtime Coca-Cola beneficiary whose school of business is named for Goizueta. A throat infection left him critically ill because of his chemotherapy-weakened immune system.

Bold and aggressive, Goizueta ensured Coke’s position as the world’s most-recognizable brand product while making the Atlanta-based company one of Wall Street’s most valuable. Coke’s value zoomed from less than $5 billion in 1981 to nearly $150 billion in 1997.

“I know he took enormous pride in the leadership team he put in place to continue the great success the company has enjoyed,” said billionaire Warren Buffett, a Coca-Cola board member.

Diet Coke and caffeine-free drinks joined Coca-Cola products in the ‘80s and did well, but Goizueta’s decision to come out in 1985 with New Coke was a classic blunder. The company brought back the old formula, calling it “Classic,” after three months.

Goizueta moved Coke into new markets in China, India and Russia and the rest of the former eastern bloc, making money by acquiring and selling Columbia Pictures.

Goizueta, who went to work for a Havana subsidiary of Coke as a chemical engineer in 1954, left Cuba in 1960 with $20, a suitcase and 100 shares of Coke stock. In 1997, he had a Forbes-estimated wealth of $1.3 billion, making him the 120th-richest American on the magazine’s annual list.

The experience helped drive Goizueta’s leadership.

“Once you lose everything, what’s the worst that’s going to happen to you? You develop a self-assurance,” Goizueta once explained. “That’s why I tell people around here: ‘Don’t you get too tied to material things. Somebody can take that away from you.”’

Roberto Crispulo Goizueta was born Nov. 18, 1931, in Havana, the son of a sugar refinery owner. He attended a private academy in Connecticut, where Goizueta polished his English by watching movies over and over.

He earned a chemical engineering degree at Yale University, then returned home to the family business in 1953. Wanting to strike out on his own, he answered an ad for a bilingual chemical engineer or chemist, and found himself going to work for Coca-Cola on July 4, 1954.

After coming to the United States in the aftermath of Fidel Castro’s Communist takeover, Goizueta continued to work for Coke’s Latin American operations.

He moved in 1964 to company headquarters. Known within the company for dogged work, impeccable dress and for leaving a clean desk each night, Goizueta was elected vice chairman in 1979, president the following year and chairman and CEO on March 1, 1981. Goizueta pledged: “We’re going to take risks.”

But he also paid close attention to giving investors a better return. A $100 investment in Coca-Cola when Goizueta took the top job would be worth about $6,500 today, including reinvested dividends.

Goizueta is survived by his wife, Olga, their three children and eight grandchildren.