Indra Nooyi

She is married to Raj Nooyi, a management consultant of Indian origin. The couple has two daughters. In spite of her very hectic corporate career, Indra always prioritizes her family and maintains close relations with her mother.

She was born as Indra Krishnamurthy on 28 October 1955, in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India, into a conservative middle-class family. Her father was a bank official.

She was educated at Holy Angels Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School. She studied physics, chemistry and mathematics from Madras Christian College from where she graduated in 1974.

She possessed a rebellious streak as a young girl, and was known to be “wild”. She played guitar in a band and was also a member of an all-girls' cricket team—activities girls in her social strata rarely participated in.

A brilliant student, she earned a seat in one of India’s premier institutions, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, from where she completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA), in 1976.

Her first job was with Tootal, a British textile company which had extensive holdings in India. Eventually she moved on to work with Johnson & Johnson as a product manager.

Her job with Johnson & Johnson was quite a challenging one as she was made responsible for managing the introduction of Stayfree sanitary napkins to India. At that time advertising for feminine hygiene products was banned in the country and Stayfree was struggling to gain a foothold. Nooyi managed to introduce the products to young women by directly marketing to female students at schools and colleges.

Her experience at Johnson & Johnson made her realize that she was still unprepared for the business world, and thus she decided to pursue further education. She moved to the United States to join Yale School of Management in 1978 and pursued a master's degree in Public and Private Management. She thoroughly enjoyed her learning experience at Yale and graduated in 1980.

After getting her degree, she joined the Boston Consulting Group as a director of international corporate strategy projects. In this position, she worked on a variety of strategy projects for the next six years.

In 1986, she moved to Motorola as a senior executive in the automotive division development team. She quickly rose through the ranks and was promoted to vice president and director of corporate strategy and planning in 1988.

As an employee of PepsiCo, Nooyi is credited to have directed the company’s global strategy, leading to its extensive expansion and restructuring including the divestiture of its restaurants. She played an instrumental role in PepsiCo’s acquisition of Tropicana and merger with Quaker Oats Company.