India-born Indra Nooyi to take over as PepsiCo CEO

14 August 2006

Indra K Nooyi, currently CFO of Pepsico, will take over as the CEO of the global beverages and foods giant from 1 October, 2006. She will succeed the current chairman and CEO Steve Reinemund, who will remain as chairman of the board till May 2007.

PepsiCo is the holding company, which owns Pepsi-Cola beverages, Frito-Lay snacks, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana fruit juice and Quaker oats. The company had annual revenues of $34 billion and a current market capitalization of $104 billion.

Nooyi commented on her appointment, "I am humbled by the opportunity to lead PepsiCo, and profoundly grateful to follow in the footsteps of Steve Reinemund, Roger Enrico, Wayne Calloway and Don Kendall. Steve has steered the company to a strong and enviable position, and he will be a continuing source of wisdom and perspective. I am equally fortunate to have amazing partners, not only on the board and executive team, but in the 157,000 bright, talented colleagues around the world who deliver the results every day and are as committed as I am to continue capturing every growth opportunity."

Nooyi, 50, completed her graduation from Madras Christian College, Chennai. After finishing the postgraduate management programme from IIM, she completed a masters programme from Yale University.

She started her career with Johnson & Johnson in India as a product manager and also worked with textile firm Mettur Beardsell. She later joined the management consultancy firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Prior to joining Pespi, she had held senior positions at Motorola and ABB.