Indra Nooyi is all set to step down as Chief Executive of PepsiCo in October this year, ending a 12-year run in which she sought to refashion the drinks. The 62-year-old will stay on as the Chairman until early 2019, is being replaced as CEO by the current President Ramon Laguarta. Her stepping down also draws attention to the dearth of prominent female CEOs in corporate America. Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 as head of Corporate Strategy, rising to the position of the CEO in 2006.
In a tweet, she expressed her ‘mixed emotions’ and how a part of her heart will always remain at the PepsiCo. She wrote, “Today is a day of mixed emotions for me. @PepsiCo has been my life for 24 years & part of my heart will always remain here. I’m proud of what we’ve done & excited for the future. I believe PepsiCo’s best days are yet to come.”
In her tweet announcing her departure, Nooyi brought up her Indian roots. She also mentioned leading the company has been the honour of her lifetime. She wrote, “Growing up in India, I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to lead an extraordinary company like @PepsiCo. Leading this company has been the honor of my lifetime. We’ve made a more meaningful impact in people’s lives than I ever dreamed possible.”
Education
Indra Nooyi was born as Indra Krishnamurthy into a middle-class Chennai family on October 28, 1955. She attended Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and Madras Christian College. She received bachelor’s degrees in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics in 1974 and a Post Graduate Programme from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976. She held the position of product managers at Johnson & Johnson and textile firm Mettur Beardsell.
Breaking barriers
Nooyi managed to get a scholarship to attend Yale School of Management in 1978. But her parents were in a dilemma as she was young and unmarried. Her mother wanted to get her married first and then go to Yale. But finally, she moved to the US with $500 in her pocket. Narrating the incident at the Forbes Women’s Summit 2018, she said, “My parents were so sure I wouldn’t get any scholarship money [that] they said ‘of course you can go.’ And then when the loan money came by they were in sort of a dilemma, how do we send this young girl off to the states, who are unmarried. Because once she goes unmarried, she’s not marriageable at all. Nobody will marry her because she’s now gone alone to the States. So there was a big family meeting, everybody got together: Should we send her or not. I was going!” At the age of 25, Indra married Raj Nooyi, now President at AmSoft Systems.
Source of inspiration
At a 2015 women’s leadership session in New York, Nooyi explained how a dinnertime task by her mother helped Indra and her sister to dream big and gave them the confidence to become whoever they wanted. She explains, “Every night at the dinner table, my mother would ask us to write a speech about what we would do if we were president, chief minister, or prime minister — every day would be a different world leader she’d ask us to play. She gave us that confidence to be whatever we wanted to be. That was an incredibly formative experience in my youth.”
Work Life
In 1980, Nooyi joined Boston Consulting Group. In 1986, she was appointed as a business development executive at mobility company Motorola. In 1990, she moved to the Swiss industrial goods company Asea Brown Boveri as a part of the management team. In 1994, she joined PepsiCo and the rest is history.
Recognition
