Spotlight on: Brian Cornell, Chief executive, Pepsico Americas Foods


Stephen Foley
Stephen Foley is Associate Business Editor of The Independent, based in New York. In a decade at the paper, he has covered personal finance, the UK stock market and the pharmaceuticals industry, and been the Business section's share tipster. And since arriving with three suitcases in Manhattan in January 2006, he has witnessed and reported on a great economic boom turning spectacularly to bust. In March 2009, he was named Business and Finance Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards.
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Related articles
Bang
What was that?
The starting gun
Oh, I get it. On the race to be the next chief executive of PepsiCo, fizzy drinks maker and purveyor of crisps and snacks to an increasingly obese world.
Yes, and Mr Cornell is the new favourite, right?
The marketing exec is returning to the company he left in 2004 to be the new head of its Americas Foods division, which makes Doritos and Lay's crisps. That puts him in pole position should the board succumb to investor dissent over current boss, Indra Nooyi.
What's his pedigree?
A talented and tenacious manager, who worked his way up through the ranks at Pepsi, where he was in charge of the Tropicana brand, and then moved into retail. Most recently, he ran Wal-Mart's discount chain, Sam's Club, but quit to spend more time with his family.
Oh, yeah? That's a politician's excuse
It's true he missed out on the top job at Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, but he has long complained about the toll of moving all around the globe. Decades ago, he skipped his University of California, Los Angeles graduation ceremony to travel to London in pursuit of his sweetheart; but since then, she has had to follow him around.
He says?
Martha and I "want to live in the same Zip code" as their adult children, Jonathan and Megan, "not just occasionally seeing them in hotels and restaurants". Handily, Pepsi is based in Purchase, New York, near where Mr Cornell grew up.
Is he the right man for Pepsi?
We'll see. He's got the corporate patter to a tee, with a mantra of focusing on "five Cs" (consumers, customers, competitors, costs, colleagues), but he will have some dynamic competition in PepsiCo veteran John Compton and European head Zein Abdalla. Ultimately it will come down to results – something Mr Cornell achieved at Sam's Club, and on which Ms Nooyi has been judged wanting in five years when the share price has flatlined.
- 1 Massive stage collapse before Radiohead concert kills one
- 2 News in pictures
- 3 Leveson threatened to quit after public attack by Gove
- 4 In pictures: The bewildering face of China
- 5 Osborne: The people’s damning verdict
- 6 Ed Miliband: 'Cameron is the last gasp of the old guard'
- 7 Savers start a 'jog' on Europe's banks as Greece votes
- 8 For whom the bell tolls: £20m 'Memo' project takes shape on Dorset's Jurassic coast
- 9 Still standing: George Galloway reveals why his staunchly Leftist outlook is still invariably right
- 10 Aung San Suu Kyi: A lesson in the value of kindness
- 1 Massive stage collapse before Radiohead concert kills one
- 2 Patrick Cockburn: Greece's day of reckoning dawns in a climate of anger and uncertainty
- 3 The Blagger's Guide To: The best (and worst) fathers
- 4 We just click: How Lego keeps building on its success
- 5 Revealed: Harry Potter is the Antichrist!
- 6 The Leveson Inquiry: We're in this together!
- 7 Osborne: The people’s damning verdict
- 8 David Flatman: Over and out
- 9 Frank Zimmerman and me: The truth about the troll who tormented Louise Mensch
- 10 Aung San Suu Kyi: A lesson in the value of kindness

Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.

Win a sumptuous three-night stay in Austria
Get away from it all in the fresh mountain air at the four-star Hotel Edelweiss & Gurgl.

Win a five-star foodie weekend to Liège
Spend two nights in gourmet heaven at a top hotel in the capital of French-speaking Belgium.

A home to be proud of with Halifax
Download the Halifax's brilliant, free new Home Finder app, and take all the pain out of finding your dream home

Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.

Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.

Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page

Still standing: George Galloway

Daniel Radcliffe as drug-taking Beatnik poet

Objets czar: David Usborne’s collection of myriad objects

World's richest woman: Gina Rinehart

Comments