Roberto C. Goizueta Cantera was Chairman, Director, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Coca-Cola Company from August 1980 until his death in October 1997. Roberto C. Goizueta was born on November 18, 1931 in Havana, Cuba. Goizueta went to High School in Havana and later studied for a year in the United States at the Cheshire Academy, a preparatory school in Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering in 1953.

After graduation, he returned to Cuba to work in the family business. A year after, in 1954, Goizueta left Cuba to the United States as a result of the Castro dictatorship. At first, he worked for The Coca-Cola Company in Miami. He was reassigned 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. Later, he became Vice President of Technical Research and Development. In 1975, he was promoted to lead the Legal and External Affairs department and by 1979 he was appointed President of Coca-Cola.  He remained President of the company until his death in 1977.

Goizueta also sat on the Board of Directors for various companies, including SunTrust Banks, the Ford Motor Company, and the Eastman Kodak Company.