Indra Nooyi Joins Amazon Board of Directors
Indra Nooyi, who worked as the former CEO of PEPSICO, has joined the Board of Directors of famous retailing chain Amazon. After stepping down as the CEO of PEPSICO last October, serving for a long 12 years she has joined as the second woman candidate in the Board of Directors. Earlier this month, Starbucks executive Rosalind Brewer had also joined the Board. Amazon revealed the news in an SEC filing where they mentioned that Nooyi will overlook the Board’s auditing committee.
On her arrival, the online retail giant explained that the company is ‘thrilled’ to have elected two new members in their Board of Directors. They welcomed both Rosalind Brewer and Indra Nooyi by congratulating them. Both happen to be women of colour in the Board.
Nooyi, born in Madras (present day Chennai) started as the Chief Financial Officer of PEPSICO and gradually became the CEO in 2006. During her tenure, PEPSICO not only acquired big name brands but also invested in health related products and fended off a proposal to split PEPSICO’s food and beverage business. The famous Orange juice company, Tropicana was acquired by PEPSICO in 1998 where it is believed that Nooyi was the key person behind the acquiring.
She was one of the few coloured women of her time to be the chief of a Famous Company. Along with her stint in PEPSICO, she had also served as the director of Schlumberger Limited, which is chiefly an oilfield company.
Nooyi is one of the five women directors of the 11 member board, who has been granted 549 shares of the common company stock. This comes after Amazon’s announcement in 2018 that they want diversity in their board by electing members from the minority groups as well as women. Nooyi had an illustrious career who has been consistently ranked upon the Top 100 Powerful Women across the world. In 2014, she was listed 13 on the Forbes list of 100 Powerful Women, and has also been ranked as the 2nd most Powerful Women by Fortune list in 2015. She was also appointed as the first independent female director by the ICC (the International cricket Council) in February 2018.