Coca-Cola Enterprises CEO John Brock Visits Mississippi College

MC School of Business Dean Marcelo Eduardo with John Brock

Coca-Cola CEO John Brock got a little misty-eyed at times as Mississippi College leaders dedicated a classroom in the School of Business after his parents.

The Moss Point native and his wife, Mary, cherished the memories Thursday as an MC professor, a local pastor and others spoke fondly of John F. Brock, Jr. and Anise McDaniel Brock, who met at MC and married toward the end of their senior year on the Clinton campus in 1943.

Brock’s mother taught public school music and third grade in Moss Point for 42 years and played organ in the First Baptist Church in Moss Point for more than four decades. His father, who directed a Glenn Miller style jazz band during his undergraduate days at MC, worked at a Gulf Coast paper mill.

Today,  John F. Brock III remains quite proud of the lasting contributions his loving parents had on his life. It was more like a homecoming when the Coca-Cola Enterprises chairman and other family members joined the tribute to Brock’s mother and father.

“MC is an incredible place,” John Brock said moments before the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “Mary and I are huge supporters of higher education,” whether it’s his alma mater, Georgia Tech, that of his parents, Mississippi College, or at Vanderbilt University, where two of his children attended. “We love them all,” Brock said in remarks at Self Hall. “This is a very special day.”

Making the day even more special, MC business professor Lloyd Roberts managed to sing one of the tunes he first learned as a youngster at a Moss Point elementary school where Anise Brock was his teacher. An avid reader due to his father, Roberts said, “I attribute my love of music to Mrs. Brock.”

When they were elementary students or later on in life, “we always felt good about ourselves because of Mrs. Brock,” Roberts said.

Former Mississippi Insurance Commissioner George Dale, who once worked as a Moss Point junior high football coach, and longtime Clinton pastor Bill Baker enjoyed telling stories about the Brocks, who loved their families, their Baptist church and Mississippi College.

After the ceremonies, Brock gave hundreds of MC business students an inside look at Coca-Cola Enterprises as the keynoter for the Executive Speaker Series in the Ed Trehern Lecture Hall.

With annual revenues exceeding $8 billion, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Enterprises is a Fortune 500 company with 13,500 employees, 17 manufacturing facilities and 165 million customers.

Brock, who earned a bachelor’s and master’s in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech, worked for Procter & Gamble after his graduation and in 1983 joined Cadbury Schweppes where he was named president of the company’s international beverage division in 1990. In April 2006, he joined Coca-Cola Enterprises as CEO and in April 2008 was named the company’s chairman.

“This is Coke’s heartland,” Brock told Mississippi students, noting the company’s strong domestic consumer base in states like Mississippi, Texas and Georgia, but also stretches to other global markets, from Europe to Asia.

While “everything is not peaches and cream” in the world economy, Brock said there are many exciting opportunities ahead for his company. Coca-Cola has sponsored the Olympics every four years, dating back to 1928 and the Georgia-based company will do it again at the 2012 Olympics in London. Brock also stressed the major components of effective leadership and believes the approach is working very well at Coca-Cola. “We have an awesome management team.”

Students gave the Coca-Cola Enterprises leader “A” grades after he delivered his speech, fielded questions and showed a Coca-Cola video about the Olympic games.

“It was definitely very interesting,” said junior Josh Carver, a business administration major from Leland. “I was able to see the difference between Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Enterprises.”

MC senior Austin Gauley, 21, an interior design major from Owensboro, Ky., said he appreciated what Brock had to say about the company’s interest in promoting a better environment. Whether he’s back home in Kentucky or in Mississippi, Gauley frequently drinks Coca Cola’s Dr. Pepper.

Stephen Williams, a senior business major from Terry, discovered at Thursday’s lecture that Brock’s college background in chemical engineering opened other career doors. “Like he (Brock) was saying, dreams do change as you go along.”