Life and Work of Roberto Goizueta

Nov. 18, 1931 – Oct. 18, 1997

Roberto Críspulo Goizueta was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1931. After graduating from the Jesuit Colegio de Belén, the young Roberto spent a year at the Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, where he learned English. He then attended Yale University, graduating in 1953 with a degree in chemical engineering. That same year, Roberto married Olga Casteleiro, his high-school sweetheart.

After Yale, Roberto began working in his father Críspulo’s business. Eager to establish his own career, however, he soon answered a blind classified ad for a bilingual chemist and accepted an entry-level position at The Coca-Cola Company in Havana. The year after Fidel Castro rose to power in 1959, Roberto fled Cuba with his wife and three children, relocating the family to the United States. Roberto would often reflect that he had come to the United States with only three things: his education, his integrity, and a job with The Coca-Cola Company.