In 1967, R. Fenton-May received a Fulbright grant that would help set the course for a remarkable international life. Born into a global journey that had already taken him from high school in Zimbabwe to university studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Fenton crossed the Atlantic as a Fulbrighter to study at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned his doctorate in chemical engineering.
That Fulbright experience did more than advance his education. It deepened a worldview that would define his career: that ideas, innovation, and leadership are strongest when they move across borders.
Fenton went on to build a distinguished career at The Coca-Cola Company, where he worked for nearly three decades. His professional journey reflected the very best of Fulbright’s mission: intellectual excellence, cultural fluency, and a lifelong commitment to international understanding. He brought scientific training, operational discipline, and global perspective to one of the world’s most recognized companies, ultimately serving as President of Coca-Cola China Ltd. from 1986 to 1993.
That role placed him at the center of one of the most important economic transformations of the late twentieth century. At a time when China was opening to the world and global companies were learning how to operate in a rapidly changing environment, Fenton helped lead with patience, adaptability, and cross-cultural insight. His work required more than business expertise. It required listening, trust-building, humility, and the ability to bridge very different systems, expectations, and ways of working.
Those qualities are at the heart of the Fulbright spirit.
After retiring from Coca-Cola as Director of Operations Development, Fenton continued to build across borders. As one of the founders of CarrierWeb, he helped create a global technology company focused on mobile telematics for the transportation and logistics industry. CarrierWeb would expand operations across the United States, Brazil, China, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and Morocco, reflecting Fenton’s enduring belief that innovation must serve the real-world movement of people, goods, and ideas.
From chemical engineering to global operations, from consumer products to logistics technology, Fenton’s career has been defined by a rare combination of curiosity and execution. He has not simply studied the world. He has helped connect it.
His leadership has also extended far beyond the private sector. Fenton served as President of the Fulbright Association, helping guide the alumni community that had played such a formative role in his own life. In that role, he helped strengthen the Association’s mission of bringing Fulbrighters together as a force for public service, international understanding, and citizen diplomacy. He also represented the Association during moments of national and global significance, including the presentation of the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding.
For Fenton, Fulbright was not a chapter that ended with a degree. It became a lifelong calling.
His achievements have been recognized by major institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. He received the University of Edinburgh Royal Bank of Scotland Alumnus of the Year Award and the University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering Distinguished Service Citation. These honors reflect not only professional success, but also a life of global contribution—one rooted in education, enterprise, and service.
As the Fulbright Program marks its 80th anniversary, Dr. R. Fenton-May’s story reminds us of what international exchange can make possible. A Fulbright grant can open the door to a laboratory, a university, a company, a country, or a calling. But its deepest impact is often revealed over a lifetime.
Fenton’s life reflects the theme of this anniversary year: Our Legacy, Our Future.
His legacy is visible in the global companies he helped lead, the technologies he helped build, the Fulbright community he helped strengthen, and the bridges he helped create between nations and people. His future lives on in every Fulbrighter who believes that knowledge should travel, that leadership should serve, and that international understanding is not an abstract ideal but a daily practice.
Dr. R. Fenton-May went to Wisconsin as a Fulbright Scholar. He became a scientist, executive, entrepreneur, and civic leader whose life has carried the Fulbright mission across continents and industries.
At 80 years, the Fulbright Program continues to honor leaders like Fenton—leaders who show us that exchange is not only about where we go. It is about who we become, what we build, and how we use our gifts to connect the world.