It's always about people

Steven Williams is the Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo Foods North America. He is a 26-year veteran of PepsiCo with strong leadership experience across the food industry. PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated $79 billion in net revenue in 2021, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

As the CEO of PepsiCo Foods North America, Steven Williams oversees all aspects of PepsiCo’s nearly $21 billion snack and convenient foods business in North America, including Frito-Lay North America (FLNA) and Quaker Foods North America (QFNA), with a diversified portfolio of iconic brands, including: Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Ruffles, Fritos, Stacy’s Pita Chips, SunChips and Quaker Oats. In this role, Steven is accountable for more than 65,000 associates and over 500 locations across the United States and Canada.

Steven, a 24-year PepsiCo veteran, has served as CEO since March 2019. Prior to this role, Steven served as senior vice president and chief commercial officer for Frito-Lay’s U.S. organization, setting strategy and overseeing all commercial activities for the U.S. field sales and customer organization, in addition to leading a large multi-functional sales organization, spanning all Frito-Lay retail customers, sales channels and go-to-market systems.

Steven also previously served as senior vice president and general manager for Frito-Lay’s East division where he was responsible for the overall business and performance management for the six geographic regions in the Eastern U.S.

Earlier in his tenure at PepsiCo, Steven led the company’s global Walmart business, managing the PepsiCo portfolio of products across all aspects of the Walmart Business worldwide, including: Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club, and Walmart International Divisions. In this role, he built strong strategic partnership and delivered significant retail sales and share growth in Walmart.

Steven joined PepsiCo in 2001 as part of PepsiCo’s acquisition of the Quaker Oats Company, which he joined in 1997, and has held leadership positions of increased responsibility across PepsiCo in sales, general management, customer management, sales planning and shopper marketing, gaining deep experience and building a proven track record of strong results.

Steven is a member of the board of directors of State Farm Mutual Automobile Company and is very active in the community, serving on the executive advisory board for the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business, the president’s advisory board for University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in addition to being a current Board Chair of United Way in Dallas; and 2024-2025 Campaign Chair during United Way of Metropolitan Dallas’ Centennial year.

Steven holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a graduate of the Program for Leadership Development (PLD) at Harvard Business School. Steven currently resides in Dallas, TX, with his wife.

Christy Jacoby serves as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for PepsiCo Foods North America, which encompasses Frito-Lay North America and Quaker Foods North America. In this capacity, she oversees the financial aspects of PepsiCo’s ~$20 billion food business, providing leadership in areas such as finance, planning, performance management and analysis, and strategy development.

With more than 25 years of experience at Pepsico, Christy has played pivotal leadership roles, including Senior Vice President/CFO of Pepsico Global Business Services, where she led organization transformation and achieved a $350 million savings program. Her diverse leadership experiences span financial planning, strategy, innovation, supply chain finance and PepsiCo GTM finance. Prior to joining PepsiCo in 1997, Christy was in corporate banking for three years.

Christy holds a Bachelor of Administration degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago.

Sarah is Vice President of Communications for PepsiCo Foods North America, responsible for PFNA’s work across brand communications, reputation management and employee engagement. She oversees internal and external communications across customers, employees, the media, and other key stakeholders. Sarah serves on the PFNA Executive Committee, as well as PepsiCo’s Global Communications leadership team.

Prior to joining PepsiCo in 2024, Sarah held a variety of communications executive roles at AT&T, including leading the Marketing Communications team and Employee Communications companywide. She also led critical functions like Consumer PR and HR Communications during her tenure. Prior to AT&T, Sarah was Vice President of Corporate Reputation Management at FleishmanHillard.

Sarah received a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Emerson College in Boston, MA and a bachelor’s degree in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

An avid traveler, Sarah loves jumping on a plane or taking an overly ambitious road trip to explore somewhere new. She currently lives in Dallas with her husband and their three children.

Rachel Ferdinando was appointed to President of PepsiCo Foods Canada in July 2022. In this role, Rachel leads the Frito Lay Canada and Quaker Canada businesses, with full P&L responsibility and oversight of PFC HR, finance, customer development, field sales, marketing, supply chain, IT, R&D, foodservice and strategy/transformation.

Rachel’s five-year PepsiCo career has focused on end-to-end marketing leadership and portfolio transformation, and builds on a multi-decade career across global category & sector leadership as well as general management. Most recently, Rachel was the Chief Marketing Officer of Frito-Lay North America – an $18 billion division of Pepsico – where she led groundbreaking brand marketing, innovation, strategic insights, design and media initiatives for the company’s portfolio of iconic snack brands.

Rachel’s marketing leadership at Frito-Lay North America earned her a host of coveted accolades, including being named the Most Innovative CMO by Business Insider, one of the most influential CMOs in the world by Forbes, and the 2022 Outstanding Marketer In the US by PR Week. Rachel has also been the recipient of multiple industry awards from the likes of The Drum US, Campaign, and Ad Age. With a keen eye for identifying breakthrough creative, Rachel served as a Juror at the 2022 Cannes Lion International Festival assessing the Creative Strategy category.

Rachel carries her passion and commitment to making an impact on the communities we serve through her volunteerism where she mentors rising talent and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing and the Board of Directors for Ad Council.

Prior to joining PepsiCo in 2017, Rachel was VP & global sector leader for family care at Kimberly-Clark Corporation.  In this position, she was responsible for leading global brands, including Scott and Kleenex, which represented one-third of total company sales and profit.  Earlier in her career, Rachel held various global marketing and general management leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline, including managing director, VP & general manager for the Malaysia & Brunei operations and VP and global business leader of a global category.

Rachel holds a First Class BSC with Honors degree in chemistry from Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine in London. Originally from Weston-super-Mare in the UK, Rachel currently resides in Dallas, Texas with her husband, where she enjoys running, cooking and keeping busy with two energetic kids.

Cara Keating, an 18-year PepsiCo veteran, is the Chief Customer Officer for Frito Lay North America.  Since joining PepsiCo in 2004, Cara’s ability to consistently deliver results has led to progressively senior roles in general management, customer development and field leadership across Canada.

Cara began her PepsiCo career in the Western Canada market with Frito Lay Canada (FLC). She then moved to Toronto with PepsiCo Foods Canada (PFC) in 2010 for sales roles with both FLC and Quaker responsibilities including leading the national convenience & gas business, large grocery customers, and foodservice sales. In 2014, Cara was promoted to Senior Director of Sales Strategy, Planning, and Insights. After her promotion to Ontario Area Vice President in 2015, Cara led the team to back-to-back Pingel Award wins in 2015 and 2016 for the top-performing FLC region. In 2016, Cara was promoted to Vice President Customer Development, where she led PFC’s national sales team to deliver against PepsiCo’s promise of providing world-class service to our customers and innovative programs to our consumers. Most recently, Cara was President of PFC, a role she held for three years. In this role Cara navigated the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to many other transformational changes, all while delivering sustained growth for the company and its customers.
 
Cara is a talented people leader and passionate supporter of PepsiCo’s Diversity, Engagement & Inclusion agenda. As a former lead and recent executive sponsor for the Women’s Inclusion Network (WIN), her efforts to expand WIN across PepsiCo Canada were recognized with the prestigious PepsiCo Global Harvey Russell award for her contributions to diversity and women’s development across PepsiCo. Cara has also helped to position PepsiCo Canada as an industry leader in advancing women through her involvement on the Board of Directors for the annual Forward Together women’s development conference. In recognition of these efforts, Cara was honoured with a 2017 Star Women in Grocery award from Canadian Grocer Magazine.

Cara is also very active in the food industry and sits on the Board of Directors for the Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada (FHCP), the FHCP Industry Affairs Management Committee, the Golden Pencil Committee and was a former Advisory Council Member to the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG).
 
Prior to PepsiCo, Cara worked at Procter & Gamble for four years in Account Management. Cara holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Saskatchewan. She is an avid traveler and enjoys experiencing new destinations, cuisines and adventures with her husband, Eddie.

Denise Lefebvre is the Senior Vice President of R&D for Frito-Lay North America. In this role, Denise is responsible for setting the R&D Strategies related to delivering new product and packaging innovations to make our consumers smile with every bite.

Denise began her career with PepsiCo in 2006 and has held a variety of roles across R&D in both foods and beverages. Prior to her current role, Denise’s experience spanned several companies focusing on new product innovation for multi-billion-dollar brands in consumer package goods.  Her previous position included experiences across engineering and food science disciplines, quality systems, marketing and manufacturing.

Throughout Denise’s career, she has received twelve industry recognitions for improved design and reducing the environmental impact of packaging, including leading the team to develop the world’s first renewable PET plastic bottle. 

Denise holds a Bachelor of Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Steve Llewellyn is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Field Sales for Frito-Lay.  In this role, Steve leads the Field Sales Organization for Frito-Lay North America which encompasses all aspects of the DSD organization including, Customers, Go To Market, In Store Execution and the People agenda.  He oversees a sales force of more than 31,000 associates, who service nearly 160,000 customers each week with Frito-Lay’s portfolio of brands.

A 28-year PepsiCo veteran, Steve has worked on many areas of the business.  Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the PepsiCo Walmart team, where he was accountable for managing PepsiCo’s portfolio of products across all aspects of the Walmart U.S. business.  Prior to assuming that role, Steve was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Frito-Lay North America Foodservice and Distributor Sales and was RVP for the Southern California Region prior to that role.

Steve is a graduate of University of Texas at Austin, where he played football. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Shannon of 31 years and their three children.

Chad is Senior Vice President and General Manager for PepsiCo’s Global Walmart Inc. team, responsible for managing the PepsiCo portfolio of products across all aspects of the Walmart business worldwide, including Walmart US, Sam’s Club, and Walmart International divisions.

Since joining PepsiCo in 1998, Chad has held several leadership roles, including Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer of Pepsi Beverages North America, Senior Vice President Operations for Pepsi Beverages North America Central Division, Senior Vice President of Frito Lay’s National Accounts, Vice President of Frito Lay North America’s commercial organization and Vice President of Frito Lay North America’s Mountain Region.

Chad has deep experience and a proven track record of delivering strong business and people results, holding numerous roles across sales, operations, commercial, customer marketing, transformation, and Go-to-Market.

He is an active member of several nonprofit organizations in the North Texas community supporting underserved children, and holds a BS in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Oregon and is a graduate of the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.

Chad currently resides in Southlake, TX, with his wife, Jennifer, and are proud parents of their two daughters.

Laura is currently the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain for PepsiCo Foods North America, the $18B snack and convenient food business that includes Frito-Lay North America (FLNA) and Quaker Foods North America (QFNA).  In this role she has responsibility for field manufacturing, warehouse, transport and in-market operations along with all supporting headquarters functions. Priorities include building strategies and ensuring execution in support of the commercial growth agenda along with productivity, quality, environmental health and safety, and sustainability.

Laura joined Frito-Lay in 1989 as an operations resource where she spent 17 years in field manufacturing roles prior to coming to Frito-Lay headquarters. Laura’s previous roles include Senior Vice President of Service and Distribution, Supply, and Commercialization, Senior Vice President of Business Transformation, and Vice President Marketing Services.

In addition to her current role, Laura serves as the executive sponsor for Frito-Lay’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), providing strategic oversight and guidance to the 10 ERGs. Laura’s commitment to achieving remarkable business results while advancing diversity and engagement earned her the 2020 Global Steve Reinemund Leadership Legacy Award for PFNA.

Laura holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University.

Patrick McLaughlin is senior vice president of human resources and chief human resources officer for Frito-Lay North America, leading the field and headquarters structure with a focus on building organizational health and capability, developing talent and strengthening employee relations.

Patrick assumed this role in February 2012, after serving as vice president of human resources sales and supply chain, which included the human resources support for Frito-Lay North America plants, sales regions, sales operations organizations and the headquarters organizations since May 2010. Before this appointment, he served as a regional human resources director, manager of labor relations, and head of the human resources function for the Pepsi-Cola North America franchise organization at Pepsi Beverages Company/Pepsi Beverages Americas, where he helped lead the integration of bottler acquisition.

Prior to PepsiCo, Patrick worked for Exxon in organizational development, labor and HR generalist roles. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Purdue University and is originally from Northwest Indiana.

Brett  O’Brien oversees some of the most iconic brands in society – binding art, science, and culture to inspire a sense of purpose that brings moments of joy to consumers and helps reimagine what the future of food could look like. As Chief Marketing Officer of Frito-Lay North America – an $18 billion division of PepsiCo -- Brett leads groundbreaking brand marketing, innovation, strategic insights, design and media initiatives for the company’s portfolio of iconic snack brands.

Prior to his current role, O’Brien led the Gatorade and Propel brands since 2012, but grew the company’s portfolio of brands that service athletes to include Muscle Milk and Evolve. His responsibilities across the portfolio include innovation, retail strategy, sports marketing, and integrated consumer engagement programs.

Since joining PepsiCo in 2001, O’Brien has held several other roles including Juice Drink brand marketing, Urban Lifestyle Programming, Pepsi Music and Millennial Initiatives and the Portfolio Energy brands.

Before PepsiCo, he spent four years with Advantage International Sports Marketing (now called Octagon Sports) creating events for the Senior PGA Tour and Lexus Golf Champions for Charity, as well as sports marketing consultation for Northwest Airlines.

O’Brien’s successful and creative track record has earned him honors including being named to Advertising Age’s 40 Under 40 in 2013 and Digital A-List in 2010, a nomination from Brandweek as the “2010 Marketer of the Year” and the recipient of Event Marketer’s 2011 Brand X Award.

A sneaker enthusiast and loyal Boston sports fan, O’Brien graduated with a BA from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He resides in Chicago with his wife and two kids.

Leanne Oliver is senior vice president and general counsel of Frito-Lay North America, responsible for managing all legal matters for Frito-Lay North America. She assumed this role in September 2017.

Leanne joined Frito-Lay in 1996 as part of the human resources department and transferred to the Frito-Lay legal department in 2000. She has held a number of positions of increasing responsibility in the Frito-Lay legal department and spent more than six years at PepsiCo’s corporate headquarters in Purchase, N.Y. where she led the employment law function for PepsiCo’s U.S. businesses.

Leanne holds a bachelor’s of science degree in biology from Gonzaga University and a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. 

Parth Raval is Chief Growth Officer for PepsiCo Foods North America, comprising of Frito-Lay North America, Quaker Foods North America, and PepsiCo Foods Canada.  In this role, Parth leads a cross-functional organization including Strategy, Marketplace Insights, Commercialization, Revenue Management, Transformation, and Governance/ Integration. Parth and his team are responsible for setting and accelerating our growth agenda across functions and businesses.

In his 17 years at PepsiCo, Parth has worked in many areas across the organization including Corporate Strategy/Global M&A, driving key strategic projects in Thailand, India and China in Strategy, leading M&A due diligence and deal execution for two Juice acquisitions in Russia and the Ukraine, and leading Frito-Lay Field Sales in Texas & Oklahoma, leading the Region’s $1.0B Large Format Snacks Business. Most Recently he led Corporate and Global Foods & Beverages Groups Strategy in Purchase, along with the Enterprise Transformation Office.

Parth has a B.S. in Symbolic Systems with high distinction from Stanford University and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Parth lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife Ami and two daughters Anya and Kyla, and is also an avid Los Angeles Dodgers fan.

Shyam Venkat is the chief information officer for PepsiCo Foods North America. In his role, Shyam leads all aspects of the IT organization including strategy, software development and integration, and on-going support. Key focus areas for Shyam include modernizing and upgrading the Go-To-Market, CRM, Supply Chain, and ERP applications; simplifying the application portfolio; scaling the B2C/B2B eCommerce and omni-channel platforms; creating advanced analytics and automation solutions to optimize operations; and hardening the overall underlying infrastructure.

Shyam is a proven technology and digital transformation leader with more than 25 years of experience in IT, eCommerce and digital solutions. Prior to this role, Shyam held a series of leadership roles both at PepsiCo and other enterprise companies including AT&T, Deloitte Consulting, and companies in the energy and manufacturing industries.

Shyam holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from India and his dual master’s degrees in industrial engineering and information systems from University of Texas at Arlington. He resides in the Dallas area with his wife Priya. They have two children, Raag and Laya.