Food and beverages major PepsiCo has promoted Sanjeev Chadha as CEO of Asia, Middle East and Africa business (AMEA). Prior to this, Chadha was the president of PepsiCo’s operations in the Middle East and Africa.
This is a part of the organisational restructuring in the company and coincides with the demise of Saad Abdul Latif, CEO for AMEA for PepsiCo, who passed away last month.
In his new role Chadha will be responsible for the company’s operations in as many as 90 countries, including India. He will continue to be based in Dubai and will be reporting to PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra K Nooyi.
“Sanjeev is one of the most respected senior leaders in the PepsiCo family and he has a strong track record of success. His leadership, experience and deep knowledge of the business, the region and its people will help to continue to drive success in AMEA,” said Nooyi in a company statement.
Chadha, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, started his career in India at Brooke Bond, which is now a part of Hindustan Unilever. He has been working with PepsiCo for 23 years and served in several different capacities, including marketing, sales, innovation, franchise and general management.
He spent over a decade based out of Hong Kong, leading PepsiCo in different countries and functions across Asia Pacific, before returning to India in 2007. Chadha was the head of India operations between 2007 and 2010 and was also one of the founding members of PepsiCo’s India operations two decades ago. Under his leadership between 2008 and 2010, the Indian unit of the company had been the highest volume growth contributor to PepsiCo globally.
With his promotion almost three years ago, he was also inducted as a member of PepsiCo’s global leadership team under the PepsiCo Executive Committee.
The role of India chief was given to Manu Anand, who moved in from Thailand, where he was the CEO for South East Asia, responsible for the foods and beverages business in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands. Anand quit the firm few months ago to become president India and South Asia for Mondelez International and managing director of Cadbury India. PepsiCo is yet to fill the vacancy for the chief of India unit.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)