Businessman, Philanthropist. He was the Chairman, Director, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Coca-Cola Company from August 1980 until his death in October 1997. Born into a prominent family in Havana, Cuba, his father was an architect and real estate investor and his mother’s family was part owner of a sugar mill. He attended the Colegio de Belén, a Jesuit secondary school in Havana and later studied for a year in the US at the Cheshire Academy, a preparatory school in Cheshire, Connecticut. In 1948 he entered Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering. In 1953, he returned to Cuba to work in his family’s business and a year later, he obtained a job working for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Cuba and was soon promoted to Chief Technical Director of five Cuban bottling plants. In 1959, when communist dictator Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba, his family decided to defect to the US while on vacation in Miami, Florida and he was hired by the Coca Cola Company there and was re-assigned to Nassau, Bahamas as a Chemist for the Caribbean region. In 1964 he was moved to the headquarters of the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia and he became Vice President of Technical Research and Development. In 1975 he was placed in charge of the Legal and External Affairs department. In 1979 he became President of the Coca-Cola Company after the resignation of J. Lucian Smith and in March 1981 he became Chairman following the retirement of J. Paul Austin and remained in that position until his death. During his tenure, the Coca-Cola brand became the best-known trademark in the world and he took a $5 billion company and by 1997 turned it into a $150 billion company. He introduced the Coke slogans “Coke is it!,” “You Can’t Beat the Feeling,” and “Always Coca-Cola”. He launched Diet Coke, as well as the ill-fated “Classic” Coke. In 1982 he approved the purchase of Columbia Pictures, signaling Coca-Cola’s intentions to branch out beyond the soft-drink business. However, became uncomfortable in a business that he knew little about, and in 1989 he sold Columbia to the Sony Corporation. In 1992 he established the Goizueta Foundation, with a goal to support educational and charity institutions and in 1994 the Board of Trustees at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, named its business school after him. He also sat on the Board of Directors for various companies, including SunTrust Banks, the Ford Motor Company, and the Eastman Kodak Company. He died of complications from lung cancer in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of 65. (bio by: William Bjornstad)  Family links:  Spouse:  Olga Casteleiro Goizueta (1934 – 2015)* *Calculated relationship