Coca-Cola Board of Directors & Warren Buffett

Muhtar Kent
Chairman & CEO
One Coca-Cola Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30313, or
PO Box 1734
Atlanta, GA 30301
(404) 676-2121 (Switchboard)

Muhtar Kent followed in the footsteps of previous Board Chairman and CEO E. Neville Isdell by lying to shareholders present at the April 2010 annual meeting and many others watching the meeting on a webcast.

Kent responded to a question raised by Campaign Director Ray Rogers by first stating that Rogers's accusations are "unfounded." He added that the accusations have "no merit" and that there was no truth to the issues raised regarding Latin America.

However, Kent has been taken to task by several reporters in Mexico because there is an outstanding lawsuit by a former 16-year employee and top marketing executive of The Coca-Cola Co. The plaintiff, Angel Alvarado Agüero, alleges that the company pressured him to act illegally to destroy all competition at the 700,000 mom and pop stores in Mexico. When he refused, he was forcibly and unjustifiably dismissed and denied substantial compensation owed to him. In the past, Coke had been fined millions of dollars for engaging in similar monopolistic activity in Mexico.

But even worse, this case highlights how The Coca-Cola Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, The Coca-Cola Export Corp., conspired to illegally cheat Mexican workers out of hundreds of millions of dollars in pay and profit sharing and the Mexican government out of millions in tax revenues.

In addition, Kent stated that all court cases have been dismissed, yet there is an outstanding case that was filed in the State Supreme Court of New York on February 25, 2010, accusing Coke and its operations in Guatemala of murder, rape and attempted murder directed at union leaders and family members.

And, of course, human rights abuses continue to pile up in places like Colombia and China.

Coca Cola como San Pedro (En Español)
Por: ALBERTO BARRANCO
http://simulacionoutsourcing.wordpress.com/editoriales

Muhtar Kent and Insider Stock Trading:

It should be noted that Kent was implicated in an insider trading scandal. According to TheStreet.com (1/20/06):

"It seems that in the fall of 1996, as a managing director of Coca-Cola Amatil-Europe, Kent sold short 100,000 shares of the bottler — just before a profit warning clipped the stock. Kent said back then that he believed the sale was legal and that he hadn't been influenced by any information about Amatil's results.

"Australian regulators didn't see it that way. So the next year, Kent settled an insider trading complaint with the Australian Securities Commission. Without admitting wrongdoing, Kent agreed to repay about $400,000 in profit from the transaction, plus $50,000 to help cover the cost of the investigation.

"Kent resigned from Amatil in September 1997. "He thought it was in his and the company's best interests," his spokesman told Sydney's Daily Telegraph at the time...

"'This was neither an insider issue nor were any company rules violated,' a Coke spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. 'It basically was a situation where Muhtar was provided with incorrect financial advice. When he discovered it was incorrect he moved immediately to remedy the situation.'

"You aren't alone if you find that explanation a little flat."

2011 Director Compensation for attending a small number of Coca-Cola Board Meetings.

Herbert A. Allen
President, CEO, Member of Board of Directors
Allen & Co. Inc
711 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 832-8000

Coca-Cola Director since 1982

Ronald W. Allen
Advisory Director, Delta Air Lines
Atlanta, GA
(404) 715-2581
(404) 715-6197

• Coca-Cola Director since 1991
• Delta Airlines, Retired Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer
• Aaron's, Inc. President and CEO
• Aircastle Limited, Director
• Forward Air Corporation, Director
• Guided Theraputics, Inc., Chairman

Note: Mr. Allen is listed as one of twenty members of the Monday Morning Political Action Committee with such well-known political operatives such as incarcerated lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Ultra Right-wing publisher of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He was also a member of Friends of Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani's Presidential Committee.

Howard G. Buffett
President
Buffett Farms

• Appointed to Coca-Cola's Board December 15, 2011
• Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Director
• Lindsay Corporation, Director

Richard Daley

• Appointed to Coca-Cola's Board December 9, 2010

Daley, 69, is the former mayor of Chicago and currently serves as of counsel at the international law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and is the managing principal of Tur Partners LLC, an investment and advisory firm.

Daley is also a senior advisor to JPMorgan Chase.

Barry Diller
Chairman
IAC/InterActive Corp
152 West 57th Street
New York, New York, 10019
(212) 581-6433
(212) 314-7300

AMNY reported that Barry Diller stepped down as CEO, but will remain as Chairman, of IAC/Interactive Corp. in the wake "of IAC employees' accusations reported by Gawker that Diller has misused company money":

CNET News reported on December 2, 2010 that a disgruntled tipster told Gawker.com in November that the carpeting in Diller's office in the company's striking, Frank Gehry-designed Manhattan headquarters was worth a full $1 million; that Diller spent thousands of dollars of IAC money on personal travel every day; and that his company car was upgraded from a Mercedes to a Maserati this year."

• Coca-Cola Director since 2002
• Interactive owns: Expedia, Inc., Interval International, TV Travel Shop; Hotels.com; HSN; Live Nation, Inc, Match.com, uDate.com; Entertainment Publications; Citysearch; Precision Response Corporation; and LendingTree
• New York University, Trustee
• UCLA, Board for the Medical Sciences, Director
• University of Southern California, School of Cinema-Television, Board of Councilors
• The Washington Post Company, Director

On Barry Diller & New York University:

In 2005, New York University made headlines when the University Senate pledged its commitment to human rights by kicking Coca-Cola off campus. Four years later, the Senate turned its back on these principles, failed to live up to its own resolution and invited Killer Coke back to NYU, leaving many students angry. As Jeff Olshansky, the co-chair of NYU Law Students for Economic Justice said, "NYU made a promise to these Colombian workers and they broke that promise. NYU decided to put their financial relationship with Coke above human rights."

Why?

Could it be that a member of the NYU Board of Trustees also happens to be a Director of The Coca-Cola Company?

Billionaire Barry Diller "earns" more in one hour than most make in a year. And when NYU Trustee Diller purchased $20 million dollars of Coca-Cola stock in March 2009, he did so just weeks after NYU surprisingly reversed their ban on Killer Coke.

Coincidence?

Seven months later, Barry Diller bought an additional 510,000 shares of Coca-Cola stock for $27.6 million dollars, continuing his support for one of the world's most corrupt companies.

After more purchases, as of November 1, 2011, Diller owns 1,736,000 shares of Coke valued at $116,502,960.

Not only does Barry Diller now own more than $116 million dollars (as of 11/1/11) of stock in The Coca-Cola Company, but Coke has paid substantial sums to Diller's InterActiveCorp. It's laughable that Coca-Cola calls Diller an "independent director."

Is it any wonder that Barry Diller does not speak out against Coke's injustices and that NYU administrators are helping cover up Coke's crimes?

Evan G. Greenberg
Chairman, President & CEO
ACE Limited

• Coca-Cola Director since 2011

Alexis Herman
Chair and CEO
New Ventures LLC

• Coca-Cola Director since 2007
• Cummings Inc, Director
• Entergy Corp, Director
• MGM Mirage, Director
• Sodexo , Inc, Chair of Business Advisory Board
• Toyota Motor Corp. Chair of North American Diversity Advisory Board

Donald R. Keough
Chairman of the Board
Allen & Co. Inc
711 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 832-8000

• Coca-Cola Director since 2004
• Former President & COO, The Coca-Coca Co.
• DMK International, Chairman
• IAC/InterActiveCorp, Director
• Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Director

Robert Kotick

• Appointed to Coca-Cola's Board February 16, 2012

Kotick, 48, is President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Activision Blizzard, Inc., a global interactive entertainment software company leader and the world's largest independent video game publisher.

Maria E. Lagomasino
Chief Executive Officer
GenSpring Family Offices, LLC (an affiliate of SunTrust Banks, Inc.)
3801 PGA Blvd, Suite 555
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
800-338-3559 or 561-746-8444

• Coca-Cola Director since 2008
• Avon Products Inc., Director

Donald F. McHenry
Distinguished Prof in Practice of Diplomacy
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
301 InterCultural Center
37th & O Streets, N.W.
Washington, DC 20057
(202) 687-5696 (School of Foreign Service)
(202) 687-6083 (Georgetown University)

Coca-Cola Director since 1981

Sam Nunn
Retired Partner, but with an office at King & Spalding
King & Spalding LLP
1180 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
(404) 572-4949
(404) 572-4600

• Coca-Cola Director since 1997
• Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
• General Electric Company, Director
• Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech, Distinguished Professor
• Center for Strategic and International Studies, Chairman of the Board
  Read "Sam Nunn: Legacy of Shame"

King & Spalding's web site describes their "Traditional Labor Practice":

"...We counsel non-union clients on how to remain union free, and we represent clients in union organizing campaigns and unfair labor practice cases. We have also advised clients with respect to decertifying incumbent labor unions, and have had a number of successful decertifications. We often represent clients in collective bargaining, advise clients on contract interpretation issues, and represent clients in arbitration proceedings pursuant to their collective bargaining agreements. We also actively work with clients facing work stoppages, including training management employees, obtaining injunctive relief where appropriate, and advising clients on replacement of striking workers..."

Under "Preventive Advice and Training" King & Spalding states: "We also conduct training for all levels of employees from executives to staff. These training sessions include: The Manager's and Supervisor's role in Maintaining Union Free Status..."

Some of the clients that King & Spalding have represented include Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., The Coca-Cola Co., Chevron, Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil Corp, General Electric Capital Corp., General Electric Co., General Motors Corp., GlaxoSmithKline, Lockheed Martin Corp, SunTrust Banks, Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System.

On Chevron: In 1997, after 24 years in the U.S. Senate representing Georgia, Nunn was elected to the board of Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001. For all the years that Nunn has been involved at Texaco and now Chevron, these companies have been involved in many egregious environmental and human rights abuses.

Over three decades of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest, leaving local people suffering a wave of cancers, miscarriages and birth defects.

Mr. Nunn as chairman of the Board's Public Policy Committee is the person most suited to deal with this issue. He declined an invitation to meet with several large shareholders who had toured the Ecuador disaster area.

The Public Policy Committee is concerned with and Identifies, monitors and evaluates domestic and international social, political and environmental trends and issues that affect Chevron's activities and performance; The Committee recommends to the Board policies, programs and strategies concerning such issues.

It is clear that Mr. Nunn is part of the status quo and plays the same role at Chevron that he plays at Coca-Cola where profits take precedence over ethics, morality and justice. For all those years he has abused his power as a top policymaker for Texaco and Chevron, he has been paid handsomely. In 2009, his compensation from Chevron for attending a small number of board meetings was $307,205.

The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador

Special Report on Sam Nunn

James Robinson III
Co-founder, General Partner
RRE Ventures
126 East 56th Street,
New York, NY 10022
(212) 418-5100

• Coca-Cola Director since 1975
• JD Robinson, Inc, President

Peter V. Ueberroth
Chairman
Contrarian Group
1071 Camelback Street
Newport Beach, CA 92660
(949) 720-9646

• Coca-Cola Director since 1986
• Pebble Beach Company, Owner and co-chairman
• Aircastle Limited, Director

Jacob Wallenberg
Chairman of the Board
Investor AB
Arsenalsgatan 8C
SE-103 32 Stockholm, Sweden
Telephone: +46 8 614 20 00
Telefax: +46 8 614 21 50

• Coca-Cola director since 2008
• ABB Ltd, Director
• Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, Vice Chairman
• Atlas Copco AB, Vice Chairman
• SAS, Vice Chairman
• Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Deputy Chairman

James B. Williams

• Coca-Cola Director since 1979
• Marine Products Corporation, Director
• Rollins, Inc., Director
• RPC Energy Services, Inc., Director
• SunTrust Banks, Inc, Former Chairman and CEO

Warren E. Buffett
Chairman and CEO
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
1440 Kiewit Plaza
Omaha, NE 68131
(402) 346-1400

Buffett currently serves on the following boards:

• Grinnell College, Trustee
• The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Member
• The Urban Institute, Trustee
• The Washington Post Company, Member of Board of Directors
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Trustee
• Borsheim Jewelry Company, Inc., Chairman
• Citigroup Global Markets Holdings, Inc., Director

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is the largest institutional holder of stock in The Coca-Cola Company, with 200 million shares worth $11 billion representing 8.7 percent of the common shares outstanding as of March 31, 2010. Over the years, this has been Buffett's/Berkshire Hathaway's single largest investment. Buffett was a member of The Coca-Cola Company's board of directors from 1989 to 2006.

Don Keough, Director and former President of The Coca-Cola Co., listed above, sits on the board of Berkshire Hathaway

Buffett is called the "Oracle of Omaha" or the "Sage of Omaha" and has a reputation as a liberal, having been a key advisor to President Barack Obama. Is this reputation earned or is it all public relations? Let's take a look at another side of Warren Buffett:

Mr. Buffet sat on the board of Coca-Cola for 17 years. In all that time, as one of Coke's top policymakers, he never challenged or questioned the company's labor, human rights and environmental abuses or the aggressive marketing of nutritionally worthless and damaging soft drinks to children. All members of the board opposed resolution after resolution trying to place Coca-Cola on the right side of human rights.

Much of Buffett's wealth has been made on his huge, long-term investments in Coke. His wealth has been built on undermining the health of millions of children, the exploitation of workers and the destruction of the environment. One share of Berkshire Hathaway stock is priced at $104,950 as of June 4, 2010.

Warren Buffett, From Killer Coke to Climate Killer:

But it gets worse. In "The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming," (Rolling Stone, 1/21/10), Warren Buffett was described as, "The Profiteer." Despite Buffett's work with Obama, the article stated "...America's best-known investor has been blasting the president's push to curb global warming - using the same lying points promoted by far-right Republicans. The climate bill passed by the House, Buffett insists, is a 'huge tax - and there's no sense calling it anything else...'

"But Buffett, whose investments have the power to move entire markets, is doing far more than bad-mouthing climate legislation — he's literally banking on its failure... His conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, has added 1.28 million shares of America's biggest climate polluter, ExxonMobil, to its balance sheet."

And the article goes on: "...in November, Berkshire placed a huge wager on the future of coal pollution, purchasing the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad for $26 billion - the largest acquisition of Buffett's storied career. BNSF is the nation's top hauler of coal, shipping some 300 million tons a year."

Among the 17 "polluters and deniers" with Buffett are conservative publisher Rupert Murdoch, Blue Dog Sen. Mary Landrieu, Conservative writer George Will, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, former 2008 Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and Tea Partiers Charles and David Koch.

On June 2, Buffett was subpoenaed by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which according to Reuters (June 3, 2010), grilled him on whether, as Moody's largest shareholder/owner, he took any responsibility for that company's disastrous role in the worldwide financial crisis. Buffett did not want to take any responsibility or in any way suggest that Moody's or Goldman Sachs, which he is also heavily invested in, has any responsibility.

Cathleen Black
Resigned, Chair and former President
Hearst Corp., Magazine Division
1345 Avenue of the Americas, 42nd floor
New York, NY 10005
(212) 649-2641

Coca-Cola Director since 1993; Resigned effective December 31, 2010

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in one of his worst political decisions, appointed Cathleen Black as Chancellor of New York City's public schools. Black resigned from the board of Coca-Cola in November 2010 in an effort to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest since New York City does business with Coca-Cola through a third party vendor. Black is both unfit and unqualified for this position. She is unqualified because she has NO public school nor educational experience and needed a backdoor political appointment.

But even worse, she is unfit for the position because of the corrupt policies that she supported as a top policymaker of Coke since 1993. Black raked in millions at Coca-Cola and holds millions of dollars of Coca-Cola stock, much of which was made off the backs of children working in sugar cane fields and from the mass-marketing of nutritionally-worthless and damaging products to children that continues throughout the world.

Read Juan Gonzalez's article on Cathleen Black and Coca-Cola in the NY Daily News:

Read New York Times article By MICHAEL BARBARO and ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

Cathleen Black oversees the financial performance and development of some of the industry's best-known titles: Cosmopolitan; Esquire; Good Housekeeping; Harper's BAZAAR; Marie Claire; O, The Oprah Magazine; Popular Mechanics; Redbook; and Town & Country — 17 magazines in all. She also oversees 115 international editions of those magazines in more than 100 countries.

• Hearst Corporation, Director
• IBM, Director Resigned
• The University of Notre Dame, Trustee
• Council on Foreign Relations, Member