Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is an Indian American business executive. She is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, which is the second largest food and beverage business in the world.
Nooyi hails from the city of Chennai, India. She was born on October 28, 1955. Nooyi did her schooling from Holy Angels, Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and got a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from Madras Christian College.
Nooyi began working with PepsiCo in 1994 as its chief strategist. Soon she became an important member of the company and took part in important decision making. She advised PepsiCo to redesign its brand identity and assets. She was also a lead negotiator in several high level contracts. Indra Nooyi was the main deal maker for two acquisitions which was the $3.3 billion deal for the purchase of the orange juice company Tropicana, in 1998 and Quaker Oats for $14 billion in 2000. After seeing her amazing talents, Indra Nooyi was promoted to the position of chief financial officer in February 2000 which made her the first highest ranked Indian woman working in America. Following that, she became the president of the company in May 2001.
These are 7 facts about this lady that you need to know!
- Since Indra Nooyi became the CFO in 2001, Pepsi’s net profit rose from $2.7 billion to $6.5 billion.
- She consistently among the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. In 2014, she was ranked 13 on the list of Forbes World’s 100 most powerful women.
- Nooyi worked at Johnson & Johnson, she held various positions at Boston Consulting Group,Asea Brown Boveri, and Motorola before joining PepsiCo.
- Indra Nooyi is the 5th CEO in PepsiCo’s 44 year history.
- In 2007, Indra Nooyi was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.
- Indra was not only the lead guitarist of an all girls’ band while studying at Madras Christian College, she had also been a part of an all girls’ cricket team.
This brilliant woman says “In my heart I said, ‘I can do this better than anyone else can, and if everything else fails, they’re going to come to me and say, ‘Fix it,’ because I know I’m that good.” “Remember, I could be president of India.”
No wonder Nooyi is one of the world’s most powerful women. She managed to climb the ladder to success with her immense dedication and determination toward her career. Indra Nooyi truly is an inspiration to many today.