India emigre named first female CEO of PepsiCo

Posted on Tue, Aug. 15, 2006


India emigre named first female CEO of PepsiCo
VALLEY INDO-AMERICANS APPLAUD APPOINTMENT

By Michelle Quinn
Mercury News

In a move that epitomizes Indo-Americans' rise in corporate America, PepsiCo announced Monday that an executive born, raised and educated in India will become the new chief executive of the soft drink and snack company.

Indra Nooyi, 50, who is PepsiCo's chief financial officer, will take the reins of PepsiCo, a multinational company with brands that include Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Tropicana and Quaker Foods. Nooyi also makes PepsiCo the second-largest Fortune 500 company with a woman at the helm, behind agricultural processor Archer Daniels Midland.

For some in Silicon Valley's large Indo-American community, Nooyi's appointment Monday symbolizes a new era, a crack in the corporate glass ceiling that some feel hinders ambitious Indo-Americans from running large corporations.

``It's more than money, more than prestige,'' says Deepka Lalwani, founder and president of Indian Business and Professional Women, a Santa Clara County professional group. ``It means we arrive.''

In Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the United States, Indo-Americans have a strong presence in fields such as engineering, science and finance. The most visible Indo-Americans in Silicon Valley are Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a powerful venture capitalist, and Vyomesh Joshi, a longtime top executive at Hewlett-Packard who has been mentioned as a contender to run the company when past HP chief executives have left.

But breaking into the top echelon of consumer product companies such as PepsiCo has been harder for Indo-Americans, said Tina Shah, co-founder of Indus Women Leaders, who has worked in sales and marketing at both Clorox and Procter & Gamble. ``You don't see the kind of diversity there that you might see in the valley.''

In 1998, Shah heard Nooyi (pronounced New Yee) speak in New York about the cultural barriers she had to overcome by studying up on baseball and picking up the language of her colleagues. ``It stuck in my mind,'' says Shah. ``She's an inspiration for many South Asian women.''

But for some Indo-Americans, Nooyi's rise, while applauded, isn't seen in terms of her gender or ethnicity.

``I don't think of it in that sense,'' says Padmasree Warrior, Motorola's chief technology officer. ``I think of her as a leader.''

Warrior knows Nooyi, who serves on Motorola's board. ``She is very strategic in her thinking. She is very sharp. She can get to the heart of issues. She is a very clear thinker and very people oriented. She has the ingredients necessary to lead Pepsi.''

``I'm really pleased,'' says Anu Maitra, president of Floreat, a software company based in Saratoga. ``But I don't think of it as something that opens a door for me. I don't think it signifies a world that will be more accepting of me. I have to navigate the world on my own terms and do the best I can.''

Based in Purchase, N.Y., PepsiCo is the second largest soft drink company behind Coca-Cola.

Nooyi, who lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children, grew up in Madras, India. After dinner, Nooyi's mother would present world problems to Nooyi and her sister to solve, such as what would you do if you were the prime minister of India, according to a 2004 article in India New England. At the end, her mother would decide who was the winner.

After attending college and graduate school in India, Nooyi earned a master's in public and private management from the Yale School of Management. Prior to working at PepsiCo, Nooyi was a senior vice president at Asea Brown Boveri and vice president and director of corporate strategy and planning at Motorola.

In 1994, Nooyi joined PepsiCo. Since 2001, she has been the company's president and chief financial officer, as well as a director on its board. She will be the fifth chief executive in the company's 41-year history.

In a recent graduation speech at Columbia University's business school, Nooyi asked the new MBAs to tread carefully in other countries and cultures. ``Remember to do your part to influence perception,'' she said.

Nooyi's appointment as PepsiCo's chief signifies a shift in how corporate America sees itself, says Radha Basu, founder and former chief executive of SupportSoft, a Redwood City software company.

``It shows that they are not just going to have a strong America home base but become a true global company,'' says Basu, who worked at HP for 20 years.

Nooyi's rise is an example of the benefits to the U.S. economy and society of India immigration, said Seshan Rammohan, executive director of The Indus Entrepreneurs Silicon Valley, an Indo-American networking group.

``It speaks well of America and the breaking of the glass ceiling,'' he says. ``PepsiCo is a well-known company. To become the CEO of that company is a hell of a coup.''