Thomas & Jeanne Elmezzi’s Story

Thomas Elmezzi was born in Dec of 1914, to a poor immigrant family in one of New York’s poor  neighborhoods, Thomas Elmezzi began his career during the great depression at the age  of 16 working for Loft Candies in Queens. In 1931, Charles Guth, then President of Loft  Candies went to a bankruptcy sale in Richmond Virginia and bought Pepsi’s formula, trademark and goodwill for his own corporation. Tom, still working for Loft Candies and only 18 years of age at that time revised and developed the new formula for Pepsi-Cola along with his mentor John Ritchie. In 1951 he altered the formula again to meet the tastes of changing times and from that time until he left the company in 1968, he was the  only man on Earth who actually knew how to make Pepsi!

Imagine a 16 year old kid working as a lab assistant making chocolate in a candy factory, then at age 18 helping his mentor streamline the formula, and again in 1951 creating the new formula for Pepsi. He also created the formula for Diet Pepsi. He traveled extensively around the world from plant to plant to mix the concentrate because he was the only one who knew how to.

From those humble beginnings Tom Elmezzi went on to become the “Worldwide Head of Production” for Pepsi-Cola and helped to launch Pepsi in Canada, Cuba, Germany, Mexico and the Philippines all before he turned 30. He later on went on to setup bottling operations and launch Pepsi in Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Colombia, France, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In September of 1963, Tom turned down the job of being the President of the Pepsi-Cola Company as he saw himself more of an operations man and he saw the job of the President largely as one of public relations and socializing. After he retired from Pepsi Co., in 1968, Tom, only 54 years of age then continued to remain active in business ventures such as Intercontinental Foods, King Cola and Cascade Specialties.

To give back to those who are less fortunate than himself, Tom Elmezzi started the Thomas and Jeanne Elmezzi Foundation in 1996. According to Tom, “That guy upstairs— He blessed my family and me with this money. So I have to give back. If you are one of those who have ways of helping people, it behooves you to do so, in my opinion.”

Sadly, Mr. Elmezzi passed away on October 3, 2005 followed by his wife a few days later. Up until their passing, at age 90 and 94 respectively, Tom and his wife Jeanne remained active in the charitable activities of the foundation.