I always thought it tasted like cough syrup, anyway

I used to listen to Paul Harvey's "The Rest Of The Story" because I can always spare a quick five minutes to learn something new.

Such as...the story of the young pharmacist who was working in a drugstore and fell head over heels for the boss's daughter. This was in Virginia, 1880s. It looked like the romance would blossom until the day the mean old man sent the young one packing, saying that he wanted his daughter to marry a doctor or lawyer, not some humble pharmacist.

The old man did not know that the younger had whipped up a concoction of flavors to be served as a phosphate at the soda fountain. It was go time, and the young man packed up his broken heart and his recipe and moved to Texas, where he eventually owned his own drug store and found that the locals down there liked his soda, which he named after the old fool who threw him out of  Virginia.

He named that drink Dr Pepper.

But you still have more of the story to hear because Dr Pepper is part of a huge conglomerate these days. It's in the Keurig Dr Pepper company, which has a market cap of some $54 billion. Keurig and coffee pod giant Green Mountain formed the company after acquiring Dr Pepper Snapple Group in 2018.

Now, here is trouble for the company that even that young pharmacist could not have imagined. Keurig Dr Pepper CEO Ozan Dokmecioglu was shown the door from his job last week "due to unspecified violations related to his personal conduct," the company announced.

Dokmecioglu only got the job three months ago. The brass did not give any further explanation, except to say, “Keurig Dr Pepper’s Code of Conduct is built on a foundation of ethics, integrity and personal responsibility.  Every employee, without exception, is accountable for knowing and following the Code.” 

I'm shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you - that a big business mogul fell short in the area of ethics, integrity, and personal responsibility.

But I'm reasonably sure that Dokmecioglu will not have to take a job driving a Pepsi truck to put soda on his family table. The bigshots take care of one another.

I wonder what he did?

 

Bob Gamgort, the company’s current executive chairman and former CEO, will resume his old role following Dokmecioglu’s abrupt exit.

“KDP has a deep and talented executive team,” said Gamgort. “I look forward to continuing to work with the leadership team and the Board in the role I held less than four months ago.” 

Dokmecioglu took over as CEO in July as part of a management succession plan that was announced months earlier. He had previously served as the company’s CFO.