President-elect Donald Trump appointed PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi on to the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum that will consult with him on implementing his economic agenda on December 14th. Calling her one of the “pioneering CEOs,” Trump stated that “America has the most innovative and vibrant companies in the world, and the pioneering CEOs joining this Forum today are at the top of their fields.”
“My administration is going to work together with the private sector to improve the business climate and make it attractive for firms to create new jobs across the United States from Silicon Valley to the heartland.”
The forum is headed by Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of the investment company Blackstone and includes Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, and CEOs Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla, Uber’s Travis Kalanick; Jamie Dimon of Chase and Mary Barra of General Motors. Trump’s transition team said that forum members will give Trump their views on government policy, job-creation and productivity “in a frank, non-bureaucratic and non-partisan manner.”
Nooyi heads a multinational with an annual revenue of $63 billion that employs 110,000 people.
A graduate of Madras Christian College in Chennai, she has management degrees from the Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata and Yale University.
In 20016, Fortune magazine unveiled its 51-person 19th annual “Most Powerful Women in the U.S.” list on September 8, with the Indian American CEO Indra Nooyi at No. 2, just behind General Motors Co. CEO and chairwoman Mary Barra.
Fortune pointed to Nooyi’s vision to diversify the soda giant’s beverage and food offerings, and including more healthy options, as moves that have inspired the renewed faith Wall Street investors are showing in the company.
Also, she’s yielded some pretty solid results. PepsiCo’s market cap has increased 18 percent over the last year, bringing it to a whopping $155 billion, under her watch. Nooyi, 60, is in her 10th year as the company’s CEO and back in April she appeared onstage at the Women in the World Summit in New York City and addressed the “unfinished business” of work-life balance.
She spoke candidly about her mixed feelings about being a successful businesswoman and the “huge number of sacrifices” she made as a mother to reach the top. Watch the video below where she talks about what she would say if she “had to write a letter to myself as a younger person.”
Fortune added that experts believe PepsiCo is primed for more acquisitions in the health space soon as Nooyi — who ranked No. 2 on last year’s list — further diversifies out of the declining soda category. Lockheed Martin president and CEO Marillyn Hewson; IBM chairwoman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty, and Fidelity Investments president and CEO Abigail Johnson round out the top five. The inauguration team organizes the festivities for Trump’s swearing in as president on Jan. 20.