TROY TAYLOR

CHAIRMAN & CEO, COCA-COLA BEVERAGES FLORIDA, TAMPA

Taylor, a former board member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta for the Jacksonville branch, is kicking off his company’s second decade with a new $300-million sales and distribution center on 156 acres. To Taylor, the center is tangible evidence of his promise that Coke Florida is “going to be a part of this community forever.” Its automated features could triple production. In just 10 years, Coke Florida has become Coke’s sixth-biggest bottler and the nation’s fourth largest Black-owned business, with nearly 5,000 associates and generating more than 114 million cases of products each year at four manufacturing plants throughout the state. Taylor’s company has been recognized for four consecutive years as a “Best Managed Company” by Deloitte Private and The Wall Street Journal.