FDBusiness.com

PepsiCo has announced a number of senior leadership appointments, including the creation of a Global Chief Commercial Officer, to support the company’s strategic priorities and growth agenda.

“As we pursue our new vision to ‘Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose,’ we have taken some important steps to reorganize our leadership team. We believe these changes will enable us to better capture growth opportunities by getting closer to our consumers and deploying our global capabilities in a way that allows us to win locally in each of our markets,” explains PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta.

Laxman Narasimhan, currently Chief Executive Officer, Latin America (LATAM), Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA), has been appointed to the newly created position of Global Chief Commercial Officer, PepsiCo, reporting to Laguarta. In this new role, Narasimhan will shape PepsiCo’s integrated long-term growth strategy and lead the development of world-class commercial and marketing capabilities. Narasimhan will oversee PepsiCo’s Global Category Groups, Insights, Commercialization, Design, Global R&D, E-Commerce and Strategy. Silviu Popovici, who has led ESSA reporting to Narasimhan will now be Chief Executive Officer, ESSA and report directly to Ramon Laguarta. Narasimhan will continue to lead PepsiCo’s LATAM sector on an interim basis.

Narasimhan has held several senior leadership positions with increasing responsibility during his tenure at PepsiCo. In his most recent role, he oversaw the company’s food and beverage businesses across LATAM and ESSA, with a focus on unlocking new growth opportunities for the two organizations, harmonizing commercial strategies and operating practices, developing talent, and evolving culture.

Delayering Businesses

At the same time, the company continues to delayer operating businesses with a goal of becoming faster and more locally focused. Following the recent moves that Frito Lay North America and PepsiCo Beverages North America will report directly into Laguarta, all leaders of key businesses and geographies will now report to Ramon Laguarta, including:

• Kirk Tanner, CEO PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA)
• Vivek Sankaran, CEO Frito Lay North America (FLNA)
• Silviu Popovici, CEO Europe Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA)
• Mike Spanos, CEO Asia, Middle East, North Africa (AMENA)
• Laxman Narasimhan, interim CEO Latin America (LATAM)
• Jim Andrew, EVP Soda Stream and Beyond Bottle Ventures

The above changes will have no impact on PepsiCo’s external financial reporting structure. The company will continue to report segments as FLNA, LATAM, Quaker Foods North America, North America Beverages, ESSA, AMENA, consistent with current practice.

In addition, the company also announced a change in leadership in its Research and Development organization.

Rene Lammers, currently Senior Vice President of Category R&D, has been appointed to the role of Chief Science Officer, reporting to Laxman Narasimhan. In this role, Rene Lammers will be responsible for building R&D capabilities as PepsiCo looks to continue to expand its product portfolio. He replaces Dr Mehmood Khan, Vice Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer, Global Research and Development, who is retiring from PepsiCo.

In his most recent role, Rene Lammers was responsible for driving an integrated agenda across product, process, equipment and packaging technologies.  Since joining PepsiCo in 2010, Lammers has held leadership roles across long-term research, Global Functions, Governance and Compliance and the Global Beverage Category.  Prior to PepsiCo, Lammers spent 15 years as an R&D leader delivering differentiated consumer innovations across the CPG industry in a number of global roles.