Inside Coca-Cola

Jul 17, 2026

Uploaded by Maeve

A personal memoir introduction and dedication to Neville’s life and career at the Coca-Cola Company, framed through shared family experience and global assignments. The foreword recounts long-term marriage, international postings, leadership drive, and balancing professional demands with family bonds, including challenges faced by their daughter during repeated relocations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages251

Reading Time6 h 27 min

AccessFree to download

This book is dedicated to my two families: my parents, who molded me into what I would become; my wife, Pamela; daughter, Cara; son-in-law, Zak Lee; and grandson, Rory; and to the men and women of the Coca-Cola Company. Without all these great people, none of this would have been possible. CONTENTS Title Page Dedication Foreword Introduction One From Ulster to Africa Two In Johannesburg: My Global Career Is Launched Three Conquering Pepsi in the Philippines Four Stagnation in West Germany Five The Wall Falls Six Going Back to India Seven At the Helm of Coca-Cola Eight Connected Capitalism Afterword Acknowledgments Index Photographs About the Authors Copyright FOREWORD This memoir, penned by my husband, is also about a life shared. You, the reader, might be as surprised as I was that my husband asked me to write this foreword. During the past many months, as he wrote this book, he wracked my brains for the perfect person to introduce him, but he decided that this honor must rest on my shoulders. I assume that part of his reasoning was that obviously I know him best. This must be true, our having been married for forty-one years and before that “living in sin” for two years in what was then referred to as Zambia, the small country where we met. We were considered very avant-garde at the time but it was the Swinging Sixties and so we were just ahead of the trend and have proved to naysayers that our relationship is a lasting one. Even when I first met Neville, I knew he was the one I wanted to marry and as we got to know each other in those first weeks and months, I discovered his amazing work ethic, perseverance, and of course, ambition. Over the years, I have watched him grow, but he made me grow also and rise to the occasion as well, and I believe that I was the soft cushion he could return to after a stressful day. We realized early on that our personalities really complemented eachother ’s. Neville is a definite Gemini. He is gregarious, fun-loving, and adventurous but on the opposite side of the coin he can be serious, compassionate, as well as stubborn. I believe that by being a quiet and steady companion I have been the anchor in our relationship. This book has been enormous fun, as I have really relived our life allover again and found it fascinating to look back through the mist of memory and re-remember so many things. I must admit that I also shed atear or two over the “lows,” but they were few and far between, I can assure you, and we faced them together. The lows were his constant traveling and focus on the job at hand, and I sometimes felt second best, but this helped me develop a very strong bond with our daughter, Cara, as she was my constant companion when Neville was absent. There were also wonderful highs: the traveling to countries and places that I would never have seen otherwise, basking in the glow of the position Neville finally reached, and the great financial rewards that hav

Jul 17, 2026

Uploaded by Maeve