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Newly retired Coca-Cola CEO rallies graduatesNewly retired Coca-Cola CEO rallies graduates

The troubled world of global business needs an updated version of capitalism that bridges the gap between fiscal and social responsibility, recently retired Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Neville Isdell told Thunderbird graduates May 1 during commencement exercises in Glendale, Ariz.

“We need leaders who will help update capitalism for the challenges the world faces today,” said Isdell, who received an honorary doctor of international law during the ceremony. “The world needs leaders who are culturally aware, who are able to adapt and to work globally. And the world needs, more than ever, leaders of the highest ethical caliber. In short, the world needs more T-birds.”

Isdell, a native of Ireland, started his career in social work but crossed to the corporate side in 1966, when he became a management trainee for Coca-Cola in Zambia. He said the gap between business and the social sector was wide in the 1960s.

“There was no middle path back then,” he said during his keynote address. “There was no connection.”

He started working at Coca-Cola determined to find that connection — a “dynamic intersection” where business and social responsibility converge.

“I realized I could do more good in the world of business to better people’s lives and to better society than I could do in social work,” said Isdell, who retired for the third time on April 22. “I realized that one can pursue both business and improving society at the same time. In fact, they go hand in glove.”

Isdell’s honorary degree was the 36th that Thunderbird has awarded in its 63-year history. Thunderbird also awarded 239 graduate degrees and 38 certificates to students from 35 countries during the ceremony at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel and Spa.

Certificate recipients included 19 Jordanian students who studied at Thunderbird during the spring trimester through a partnership with the Business Development Center in Amman. A $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development has funded the partnership, which also includes Thunderbird education programs in Jordan and other endeavors.

Students in Thunderbird’s Global MBA On-Demand V program recognized Professor Roy Nelson, Ph.D., as their outstanding professor. And students in the traditional full-time MBA program recognized Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., and Michael Finney, Ph.D., as outstanding professors.

To learn more about Isdell’s comments on “connected capitalism,” visit the Thunderbird Knowledge Network.