Pepsi Team - Headshots
(Photos by Marcelo Montealegre)

Click picture for close up view

Edward F. Boyd New York, NY Boyd joined the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1947 as an assistant sales manager and led the special-markets team until 1951. A former professional singer and actor, Boyd was a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild in the era of Ronald Reagan and Joan Crawford. After leaving Pepsi, Boyd went on to hold positions at the international aid agency CARE, the Society of Ethical Culture in New York, and Wyeth International before opening his own market-research consultancy, Resources Management Ltd. (For more on Boyd, please see pages 83-90 & 273-275)

Julian C. Nicholas Durham, NC Nicholas, who attended Pace College of Business Administration in Manhattan (now Pace University), came from a family of businessmen—and especially businesswomen—with a drive to succeed. The last of the twelve to join the team, Nicholas rose to national public-relations director of special markets. In 1963, he left to travel the world, working in the U.S. State Department during the Johnson and Carter administrations, spending fourteen years with the federal government in all. In the late 1970s Nicholas joined the administration of Washington D.C.’s first elected mayor (and first black mayor of a major U.S. city) and served more than twenty years in local government. (For more on Nicholas, please see pages 255-262 & 275-76)

Allen L. McKellar St. Louis, MO McKellar first joined Pepsi as an intern in 1940 after winning a company essay contest and returned in 1950 in the expanded special-markets department. After leaving Pepsi in 1953 McKellar became regional sales representative for Falstaff Brewing Company’s Southern markets, his job taking him first to Birmingham, then to Atlanta, and finally to St. Louis. After retiring from that company he returned briefly to school to study the import-export business and launched a trading company, Senrenella Enterprises, Inc, dealing mostly with African clients. (For more on McKellar, please see pages 24-28 & 276)

William R. Simms Great Barrington, MA A 1949 graduate of the master's program in public relations at Boston University who worked for the American Council on Race Relations before joining Pepsi, Simms was ordered by the great American thinker and human-rights advocate W.E.B. Dubois to get an education and get ahead. Simms’ childhood friend, famed photographer Gordon Parks, helped launch the third and final “Leaders in Their Field” series of ads. Immediately after leaving Pepsi, Simms began a twenty-seven-year career with the National Urban League, rising from the state to the national office and becoming the director of fund-raising. While at the Urban League in 1960, he co-founded the National Association of Fundraising Professionals, which eventually became the largest fundraising group in the world, with 27,000 members with chapters in six countries. He retired from the Urban League in 1969 and helped organize the centennial celebration of Tuskegee University, the Alabama college founded on the Fourth of July in 1881 by Booker T. Washington. (For more on Simms, please see pages 218-225 & 276-277)

Dr. Charles Wilson Atlantic City, NJ A graduate of Virginia’s Hampton Institute who became a successful physician after leaving Pepsi, Wilson entered a rigorous five-year program at the University School of Medicine in Geneva, Switzerland in 1951. After graduating in 1956, he returned to the United States and eventually went into private practice, being called to Washington by the Nixon administration to participate in its national campaign to combat drug addiction as it affected thousands of Vietnam veterans. He was also active in many civic organizations in New Jersey. (For more on Wilson, please see pages 146-154 & 277-280)

Dr. Jean F. Emmons Ocala, FL A Chicago native, Emmons graduated from the University of Chicago with a master's in business administration and a concentration in finance, making him one of the few black MBAs in America. After his time with Pepsi, he entered the insurance business in Columbus, Ohio. He quit to return to graduate school, earing a master’s degree in education. He landed a principal’s job before becoming an assistant to the Dean of Education at Ohio State Univesity and earning his doctorate in education. After spending time in Evanston, IL, he moved to Trenton, NJ, to become superintendent of public schools, leaving in 1981. (For more on Emmons, please see pages 188-195 & 280-81)