He’s 51 years old, and his name is linked to the debut of one of the US largest soft-drink brands in a country that was struggling to emerge from communism. Aviad Meitar, founder of Pepsi in Romania, speaks in an interview to Wall-Street about the taste of new beginnings, how “bloody” were the early 90’s cola wars, and mistakes made in the competition with Coca-Cola giant.

In 1965, when Romania was living under the communist manifesto, in US, the newly-born cola brand began full-scale commercial distribution of Pepsi. Determined to expand its reach and turn into a global soda maker, the cola company began to search out the most promising markets and decided to leverage upon the strengths of the Eastern Europe region, in under-served countries. Donald McKendall, co-founder of PepsiCo, arrived in Romania and reached an out-of-the-ordinary agreement with Romanian authorities in 1967 that terminated in 1989. Under the agreement, PepsiCo would supply Romanian market with carbonated cola drinks and receive in exchange Romanian wine.

So Romanians could enjoy Pepsi ever since the communism era.

A similar agreement was reached by the US company with Russia in 1972: the Soviet government would trade vodka and sea ships for Pepsi, says Aviad Meitar. His book An Unimaginable Journey – How Pepsi Beat the Odds in Romania offers an inside look at how the company overcame the economic challenges under communism and recession.

Aviad Meitar (photo) has been the chairman of Quadrant Amroq Bottling Company Limited (QABCL), the company that exclusively held PepsiCo license in Romania and Moldova, until the sale to PepsiAmericas, world’s second largest PepsiCo bottler, in July 2006. Before the establishment of QABCL, Meitar was responsible for other investments of the fund.

Meitar, a graduate of School of Law in Tel Aviv, is the chairman of Pepsi franchise i