PepsiCo's Nooyi is 4th most powerful businesswoman
Wednesday, 02 October 2002, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Indra Nooyi, the Chennai-born president and chief financial officer (CFO) of global giant PepsiCo, has been ranked the fourth most powerful businesswoman by Fortune magazine. The New York-based 46-year-old was ranked 10th in Fortune's list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business last year, barely months after she was named the new president and CFO at the American soft drinks major. The financial wizard was promoted president of PepsiCo after negotiating the company's $14 billion deal for Quaker Oats. Prior to being appointed president, Nooyi had been senior vice president for PepsiCo and her responsibilities included corporate strategy, treasury, tax, control, audit, global mergers and acquisitions, IT and purchasing. "This strong-willed, electric-guitar-playing financial strategist wields huge clout with CEO Steve Reinemund, maybe because she's helped engineer $30 billion worth of deals in the past few years," noted Fortune in its profile of Nooyi. "Pepsi's earnings per share are expected to rise 13 percent this year. But the company's battle with a newly energised Coke is likely to make Nooyi's job harder than ever," it added. Nooyi, a mother of two children aged 8 and 17 and wife of a partner in a management consulting firm, arrived in the U.S. 23 years ago to attend a management course at Yale University. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Madras University, a master's in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, and a master's in public and private management from Yale University. After completing her higher studies, Nooyi began her career with Boston Consulting and moved to Motorola, where she was vice president for corporate strategy and planning. She had a similar role at Asea Brown Boveri where she had a brief stint, prior to joining PepsiCo in 1994. She had also worked in two Indian companies -- personal hygiene major Johnson & Johnson and textile firm Mettur Beardsell -- prior to shifting base to the U.S. A voracious reader -- who once said that a book-a-day is part of her routine -- Nooyi likes rock n' roll and plays the electric guitar. She is also a sports fan and spent hours studying the tapes of Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls championship basketball games to learn about teamwork. Ranked ahead of Nooyi at number two and three in Fortune's list are Kraft Foods co-CEO Betsy Holden and eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman respectively. Carly Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP), retained her top rank in the Fortune's powerful businesswomen's list for the fifth consecutive year. "The battle that won her Compaq and knocked HP scion Walter Hewlett off the board was rougher than a Vegas title fight," said the American business magazine in its profile of Fiorina.
Source: IANS
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