Nick Caporella

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, National Beverage

Search every verified Nick Caporella interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Nick Caporella, chairman and CEO of National Beverage, was criticized by crisis management professional Dean Crutchfield for the company's delayed response to questions about ingredients in its LaCroix sparkling water. Crutchfield said the company had months to address the issue after news broke around October 1, 2018, but did not respond until January 2019 with what it described as an independent lab test. Crutchfield characterized the delay as "dragging their feet" and suggested the company may have hoped the controversy would be "swept under the carpet." In a statement attributed to Caporella, he wrote with exclamation points that "the personality of the word LaCroix coupled with the awesome experience of its essence and taste is unique" and asked, "would you trade away that LaLa feeling? No way, they shout we just love our LaCroix." Caporella, a 1979 Horatio Alger Award recipient, has described his upbringing in a Pennsylvania agricultural and mining area during the Depression. He said that at age 11 he collected scrap metal and coal, and later started a site preparation business before becoming president and CEO of Burnup and Sims. In his award acceptance speech, Caporella credited a philosophy lesson from his father about carrying blocks in both arms as enabling him to "achieve far beyond my wildest dreams." He accepted the award on behalf of his parents, his wife Thomasina, and his family.