Ramon Laguarta (born 1963) is a Spanish businessman who is the chairman and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

. He became CEO on 3 October 2018 after

Indra Nooyi Indra Nooyi (née Krishnamurthy; born October 28, 1955) is an Indian-American business executive and former chief executive officer and chairperson of PepsiCo. She has consistently ranked among the world's 100 most powerful women. In 2014, sh ...

stepped down. He is the sixth CEO in the company's history and the first Spanish CEO of a large American multinational company.

Education

Laguarta graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from

ESADE Business School ESADE Business School is a private college and graduate school located in Barcelona, Spain. It is part of ESADE (Catalan language, Catalan: ''Escola Superior d'Administració i Direcció d'Empreses'', Spanish: ''Escuela Superior de Administración ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in 1985. In 1986 he received a master's degree in international management from the

Thunderbird School of Global Management Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University (or simply Thunderbird) is a global management school in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1946 as an independent, private institution, it was acquired by Arizona State University ( ...

Career

Before joining PepsiCo he worked at

Chupa Chups Chupa Chups () is a Spanish brand of lollipop and other confectionery sold in over 150 countries around the world. The brand was founded in 1958 by Enric Bernat, and is currently owned by the Italian-Dutch company Perfetti Van Melle. The name ...

, a candy company based in Spain known for its lollipops. Laguarta joined PepsiCo in January 1996. His first role was in the company's European business, and in 2014 became the CEO of the entire Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA) sector. While working in Europe, Laguarta helped lead the acquisition in 2010 of Russian dairy and juice company Wimm-Bill-Dann, a deal valued at $5.4 billion, the company's second largest acquisition after its purchase of

Quaker Oats The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001. History Precursor miller companies In the 1850s, Ferdinand Schumacher and Robert Stuart founded oat mills. S ...

in 2001. Laguarta was named president of PepsiCo in September 2017. He oversaw PepsiCo's Global Category Groups, its Global Operations, Corporate Strategy and Public Policy & Government Affairs functions. As a result of the promotion, he moved to the United States. Laguarta was unanimously voted in as PepsiCo's next CEO on 6 August 2018, the same day

announced she was stepping down. He officially took over the role on 3 October 2018 and became Chairman of the Board of Directors on 1 February 2019. Laguarta has been working at PepsiCo for over 20 years, his previous roles including CEO for Europe Sub-Saharan Africa, president for the PepsiCo Eastern Europe Region, commercial Vice President for PepsiCo Europe, general manager for Iberia Snacks and Juices and General Manager for Greece Snacks. Since becoming CEO of PepsiCo, Laguarta established three priorities to lead the company: Accelerating the company's rate of organic revenue growth; becoming a stronger company; and becoming a better company. As part of making PepsiCo a better company, Laguarta has been tasked with implementing a new purpose behind PepsiCo's sustainability agenda: helping to build a more

sustainable food system A sustainable food system is a type of food system that provides healthy food to people and creates sustainable environmental, economic and social systems that surround food. Sustainable food systems start with the development of sustainable agr ...

. Under his leadership, the company is focusing its efforts and goals around agriculture, water usage, plastics, products, climate change and human rights. Ramon Laguarta Community Engagement

This includes the company's effort to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent for their entire value chain over a 2015 baseline (roughly 30-35 million metric tons of GHG), as well as their goals by 2025 to make 100% of their packaging recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable and use 25% recycled plastic content in all plastic packaging. Laguarta has also led attempts to reduce waste by acquiring SodaStream. Through the expansion of SodaStream's business, the need for an estimated 67 billion plastic bottles will be avoided through 2025. In addition to being a member of the PepsiCo Board of Directors, Ramon also currently serves as a director of Visa Inc. He also currently serves as the Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum's Board of Stewards for the Food Systems Initiative.

Personal life

Laguarta speaks English, Catalan, Spanish, French, German and Greek. He is married with three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laguarta, Ramon Living people Spanish chief executives PepsiCo people ESADE alumni Thunderbird School of Global Management alumni People from Barcelona 1963 births Businesspeople from Catalonia University Ramon Llull alumni Arizona State University alumni Spanish expatriates in the United States