PepsiCo said Monday that Indra Nooyi would step down as the company's longtime chief executive officer, ceding her position to Ramon Laguarta as the company is navigating a shrinking global soda market.
Laguarta is to take over on October 3 and will also join the board. A 22-year veteran of PepsiCo, Laguarta oversaw global operations, corporate strategy, public policy and government affairs in his role as president.
He also served as CEO of the company's Europe Sub-Saharan Africa division.
"Ramon Laguarta is exactly the right person to help build on PepsiCo's strong position and success," outgoing Indra Nooyi wrote on Twitter.
Under her tenure as CEO, Nooyi has boosted sales of the Mountain Dew and Gatorade maker to $63.5 billion (€55 billion), up 80 percent from when she started 12 years ago. The company's share price has risen 78 percent in the same period.
Recently, Nooyi has focused on reinvigorating sales of its sodas by stepping up marketing efforts in a bid to win market share from archrival Coca-Cola.
She's also largely credited with reshaping PepsiCo with tactical mergers and shifting to healthier drinks, moving to juices and teas.
DW profiles some of the India-born chief executive officers (CEOs), who are currently in charge of global companies, including Microsoft and PepsiCo. Google's Sundar Pichai is the latest addition to this list.
Image: Reuters/R. GalbraithBorn in Hyderabad, India, Satya Narayana Nadella became the CEO of the US technology giant Microsoft in early 2014. After completing his Bachelor's in India, he went to the US to pursue higher education in Computer Science. Nadella had worked with Sun Microsystems before joining Microsoft in 1992.
An Indian Institute of Technology alumnus, Pichai is the new CEO of Internet giant Google. The Chennai-born soft-spoken Pichai joined the company in 2004. Larry Page, one of Google's two founders, said this in his recent blog about Pichai: "I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google."
Nooyi has been the CEO of PepsiCo - the second-largest food and beverage comapny in the world by net revenue - since 2006. She has consistently ranked among the world's 100 most powerful women. Like many others, she attended schools and colleges in India before leaving the country for higher education in the US.
Like Microsoft's chief Nadella, Narayen is an alumnus of the Hyderabad Public School. He is the CEO of Adobe Systems. Narayen started his professional career at Apple.
Nokia's CEO Rajeev Suri went to the Manipal Institute of Technology. He became Nokia's boss after the sale of Nokia's phone division to Microsoft Mobile was completed.
Ajay Banga has been in charge of MasterCard since 2010. An Economics graduate from Delhi University, Banga did his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Another graduate of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Menezes is currently CEO of Diageo, a multinational alcoholic beverages company.
hg/tr (Reuters, dpa)
