By Michael Connor
MIAMI, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Cuban emigre Roberto Goizueta, the wealthiest Hispanic in the United States, was a startling choice in 1981 to run Coca-Cola (KO.N), a ubiquitous but faltering symbol of American business and culture.
He was little known, had never run a business, and had learned English as a second language without the soft southern U.S. accents dominant in Coca-Cola's Atlanta headquarters.
But 16 years later Goizueta has so firmly set the course of Coca-Cola into the 21st century that the prospect of his departure after a lung cancer diagnosis has caused few ripples on Wall Street.
Goizueta was in critical condition Monday at the intensive care unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after developing a throat infection while being treated for lung cancer, the company said.
Goizueta had been admitted because of the throat infection and fever, and his condition "significantly worsened,'' due partly to complications from radiation and chemotherapy treatments he has been receiving, the company said.
His likely heir apparent, Doug Ivester, has been at his side for many years and is but one of many Coca-Cola executives investors believe could lead the company as chief executive after Goizueta.
"He is the most prominent Hispanic in Corporate America,'' said Joachim Bamrud, editor in chief of Latin Trade magazine in Miami. "No other emigre or Hispanic comes close.''
Celebrated along with Jack Welch, the chief executive of General Electric Co., as a master corporate manager and wealth builder, he was ranked last spring as the richest Hispanic in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine.
Forbes magazine puts his wealth at $1.3 billion, the bulk of it in Coca-Cola shares, which have risen 3,900 percent since he became chief executive. The 100 shares he and his family owned when they landed in Miami 37 years ago -- along with $40 in cash -- are now worth $3 million. He still owns them and every other Coke share he has bought.
The son of a wealthy Cuban sugar grower, Goizeuta has told biographers he would likely never have come to the United States without the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro and speculated he now would be a Coke bottler in his homeland.
Goizueta, 65, graduated from Yale University, a leading Ivy League college in the United States, and worked briefly at his family's sugar business before joining Coca-Cola in Cuba as a chemist in 1954.
Once in the United States, Goizueta steadily climbed Coke's managerial ladder in administrative and technical jobs but did not directly run any business until 1981. He became head of the company's legal and external affairs unit in 1975 but was still little known outside Coca-Cola.
But one person who did notice the courtly, chain-smoking manager was Robert Woodruff, the company's former chief executive, who at 91, still had great influence on Coke's board of directors.
Woodruff, seemingly impressed with Goizueta's passion for Coca-Cola and his intellect, pushed him successfully over rivals to succeed J. Paul Austin as chief executive in 1981.
Coca-Cola, in the early 1980s, was a hodgepodge of businesses, including shrimp farming and industrial water treatment, as well as soft drinks. Its corporate culture was so conservative the company had no debt.
Goizueta sold poorly profitable businesses steadily, keeping only soft drinks and focusing on overseas markets. He emphasized stock market increases, rewarded top performers with rich stock options, and borrowed heavily to buy independent Coke bottlers around the world.
He veered just once from the soft-drinks focus when he bought the Columbia Pictures studio in 1982 for nearly $700 million. Columbia pictrues was a bust as an operating business, but Sony Corp. bought it seven years later for $1.5 billion.
Goizueta's most notable miscue, the expensive rollout in 1985 of New Coke, a reformulated version of the soft drink instantly rejected by Americans, was followed by the return of the old version as Classic Coke.
He also oversaw the highly successful 1982 introduction of Diet Coke, a bold stroke for a company convinced for decades that any use of the Coca-Cola brand beyond the original soft drink would weaken the allure of the name and its red-and-white logo.
"It sounds harsh to say, but Goizueta's work is essentially complete,'' Fortune magazine says in its current issue.
"In the 16 years since this virtually unknown and strikingly uncharismatic executive strode onto the scene as CEO ..., he reformulated a business that was actually floundering -- organizationally, culturally, and financially. Against all expectations, he turned Coke into America's most admired company,'' the magazine said.
Coca-Cola shares fell 37.5 cents to $61.31 in consolidated late afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
19:58 10-13-97