8 - INDRA NOOYI, CEO, PepsiCo
Next we move to PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi, who like Morrison, has blasted her way through the glass ceiling and now sits at the helm of the world’s second largest soft drinks company and a multi-billion dollar snacks and dairy business.
Pathway to the top: Nooyi was born in Chennai, India, in 1955, and held product manager roles at Johnson & Johnson and textile firm Mettur Beardsell before heading to Yale School of Management in 1978. In 1980, Nooyi joined the Boston Consulting Group and held strategy positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri before joining PepsiCo in 1994.
Once there, she rapidly moved up the ranks, helping spin off Pepsi’s restaurants into Yum! Brands in 1997, and was instrumental in the $3.3bn acquisition of Tropicana in 1998 and the $13.8bn acquisition of Quaker Oats three years later.
She was named CFO and president in 2001 and CEO in 2006.
Education: Nooyi has a B.Sc in chemistry from Madras Christian College in Chennai; a post graduate diploma in Management (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta; and a master’s degree in public and private management from Yale.
