[DITN = Desis In The News]
Many of you met Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo when she spoke at the SAJA Convention in 2004. She has now moved up from president and CFO to CEO. See press release and bio - includes video and high-resolution photos. She is the first desi to head a U.S. company of this size; and PepsiCo becomes one of the two biggest US companies run by a woman (Patricia Woertz runs Archer Daniels Midland, a $36B company; there are only 12 women CEOs in the Fortune 500).
You can listen to a recording of a webcast of a conference call with investors here. [Excerpts from conf. call - Nooyi's current title till October is CEO-elect, when she becomes fifth CEO in PepsiCo's history. "Pepsi Co has never been in hands," says Steve Reinemund current CEO. "I am very excited and at the same time very humbled," says Nooyi.]
MORE THAN DRINKS: Among the household names in the $33-billion (sales; market cap is about $100 billion) PepsiCo empire (which has 17 that generate a billion dollars in annual sales): Pepsi and Diet Pepsi, of course; Gatorade and Tropicana drinks; Aquafina water; Lays and Ruffles potato chips; Tostitos and Cheetos chips; Quaker Oats; Cap'n'Crunch and Life cereals. See full list of US and international brands here.
Nooyi was born and raised in Madras (now Chennai), India, and studied at Madras Christian College and Indian Institue of Management, Calcutta, before coming to the Yale School of Management. More about her in the press release link above. Her appointment comes in the midst of a controversy in some Indian states about Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
MADRAS MONDAYS? This is the second Monday in a row that a Chennai-bred person has been elevated to a major post in a major American company. See last week's posting about Srinandan Kasi becoming general counsel of the Associated Press. Meanwhile, SepiaMutiny provides "two lessons from Nooyi's success."
Other desi, ie, South Asian, CEOs in MAJOR US companies ("major" of course, is subjective; $500 million-plus companies and/or brands that are widely known, perhaps? Please help us add more here):
CURRENT AMERICAN CEOs
- Ramani Ayer, chairman and CEO, Hartford Financial Group, a $27-billion financial services co.
- Raj Gupta, chairman and CEO, Rohm & Haas, an $8-billion specialty materials company
- Vinod Gupta, CEO of InfoUSA, a $400 million company (formerly known as American Business Information)
- Indra Nooyi, CEO-elect, PepsiCo
FORMER CEOs
- Rakesh Gangwal, former CEO, USAirways
- Rajat Gupta, former managing partner, McKinsey & Co. (1994-2004)
- Umang Gupta, former CEO of Gupta Corporation, a database company he took public in 1993; now chairman of Keynote Systems
- Sanjay Kumar, former CEO of Computer Associates and co-owner of New York Islanders hockey team (2000-2004)
- Bhaskar Menon, former chairman and CEO of EMI International, one of the Big Four record labels; artists include the Beatles, Deep Purple, Cliff Richard, Duran Duran, Beastie Boys, Norah Jones, etc. (appointed 1978; retired several years ago; now a consultant to the industry)
- Meeta Vyas, former CEO, Signature Brands - Betty Crocker, Cake Mate, etc (first South Asian woman to become CEO of publicly traded company; first South Asian to head a $1B business)
- Jim Wadia, former CEO, Arthur Andersen (which spun off Accenture in 2000)
LARGE-FIRM CEOs OUTSIDE SOUTH ASIA
- Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, one of world's largest telecom companies, from (market cap: $120B )
- Lakshmi Mittal, CEO and Chairman of Mittal Steel, world's largest steel company (market cap: $7B)
Who else? If you have updates, please e-mail saja@columbia.edu.
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