PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi steps down after 12 years

07 Aug 2018 --- PepsiCo has announced that its CEO, Indra Nooyi, is to step down after 12 years in the role. Nooyi is among the world's most known female business leaders and has regularly appeared on Forbes’ list of the 100 most powerful women, ranking 11th in 2017.

Nooyi, 62, has been with the PepsiCo for 24 years. The company’s current President, Ramon Laguarta, will now succeed her. PepsiCo's board of directors unanimously voted in Laguarta, who will take over on October 3 and will also join the board, the company reports.

Laguarta will become just the sixth CEO in PepsiCo's 53-year history.

PepsiCo shares have risen 78 percent since Nooyi took on the role of CEO in 2006.

Nooyi was Chief Financial Officer before becoming CEO in October 2006 and has overseen significant revenue growth for the company.

“She has delivered a strong and consistent financial performance, managing with an eye toward, not only the short-run but the long-run as well. As CEO, she grew revenue more than 80 percent, outperforming our peers and adding a new billion-dollar brand almost every other year,” a PepsiCo statement says. 

Nooyi will continue as Chairman of the Board until early 2019, the company said, to ensure a smooth transition to her successor, Laguarta.

Nooyi adds: “Ramon Laguarta is exactly the right person to build on our success. He is a terrific executive with a long and proven track record of growing businesses. He has a deep understanding of the changing preferences of consumers and other critical trends unfolding around the world and he has demonstrated that he knows how to navigate them successfully. Ramon has been a critical partner in running the company and I'm confident he will take PepsiCo to new and greater heights in the years to come.”

“Leading PepsiCo has truly been the honor of my lifetime, and I’m incredibly proud of all we have done over the past 12 years to advance the interests not only of shareholders but all our stakeholders in the communities we serve,” Nooyi said in a statement on Monday morning. “Growing up in India, I never imagined that I’d have the opportunity to lead such an extraordinary company.”

Nooyi was born in Madras, now Chennai and left India at the age of 23 to study at Yale, where she earned a master’s degree in public and private management. She then went on to work for Boston Consulting and later Motorola, where she became Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning.

Many in India have followed Nooyi's success on the global stage.