We discussed the story of Roberto Goizueta, President, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Financial Officer of Coca Cola.
His story is remarkable:
"Roberto Crispulo Goizueta was born in Havana, Cuba, on November
18, 1931, into a wealthy family with ties to the country's sugar industry. He
attended a Jesuit school in Havana and spent a year at a preparatory school in
Connecticut before enrolling in 1949 at Yale University in New Haven,
Connecticut. In 1953 he graduated from Yale with a degree in chemical
engineering. The same year, he married Olguita Casteleiro in one of Cuba's most
high-profile weddings, and the couple eventually had three children.
After working for his father for a year, Goizueta answered a
classified advertisement in a Havana newspaper for a company seeking a bilingual
chemical engineer. The company was Coca-Cola, and after just a few years, he was
appointed the chief engineer for the company's five Cuban bottling plants. But
after Fidel Castro seized power from Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959,
Goizueta made plans to defect to the United States.
Goizueta and his family left Cuba in 1960 with little more than
$200 and 100 shares of Coca-Cola stock. They settled in Miami, Florida, where
Goizueta continued to work with Coke's Latin American concerns, while also
serving as a chemist for the company's Caribbean interests. He became a U.S.
citizen in 1969."
A great story! We would definitely recommend his biography!
Click to hear the Saturday show with Fernando Hernandez, author:
Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on Blog Talk Radio
Tags: Roberto Goizueta (1931-1997) To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!
