2019 Pinnacle Awardee
Global Chief Commercial officer, PepsiCo
In this role, Mr. Narasimhan will shape PepsiCo's integrated long-term growth strategy and lead the development of world-class commercial and marketing capabilities. He oversees PepsiCo's Global Category Groups, Insights, Commercialization, Design, Global R&D, E-Commerce and Strategy. He also works with the PepsiCo Executive Committee to codify and implement an advanced Commercial Digital capability roadmap for PepsiCo, while also crafting the company's vision for building other critical commercial capabilities at scale.
Mr. Narasimhan previously served as CEO of PepsiCo Latin America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and prior to these roles he was the SVP and CFO of PepsiCo Americas Foods, PepsiCo's largest sector. The sector included Frito-Lay North America, Quaker North America and Latin America Foods divisions. In this role, he partnered closely with the Sector CEO to allocate capital, set and deliver performance targets, and build capability. Under his leadership as CFO, PepsiCo Americas Foods delivered strong growth, profitability and returns on capital.
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world, and generated more than $64 billion in net revenue in 2018. Prior to PepsiCo, Mr. Narasimhan worked at McKinsey for 19 years in the consumer, retail, energy, manufacturing, technology and healthcare industries. He also led assignments in the public sector. While at McKinsey, he worked in Cleveland, Tokyo, Toronto, Silicon Valley and New Delhi.
With an interest in global affairs and a desire to improve educational opportunities, he led several public sector initiatives at McKinsey in India with the government, focusing primarily on education and skill-building. Mr. Narasimhan is a Trustee of The Brookings Institution, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Board Member of the Latin America Conservation Council and of the US India Strategic Policy Forum.
He earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and was designated a Palmer Scholar and J.N. Tata Scholar. He also holds an MA in German and International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania's Lauder Institute, with support from the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering with distinction from the University of Pune in India. He speaks English, German, three Indian languages and conversational Spanish. He and his wife, Vidhya, have two children and live in Greenwich, Connecticut.