The real thing

From high school football to the higher echelons of Corporate America, Bob Tufts says one theme stands out in the story of his life: He overachieved.

He was told he was too slow and skinny to excel at football, then he went on to start at a Division I college team for three years. He grew up in a blue-collar home, and began his corporate life driving a soda truck. But he capped his business career in a senior executive position with a direct line to the CEO of a global business icon, Coca-Cola.

“I always overachieved,” Tufts says. “I always found a way. It's been an amazing life.”