By IANS,
New York : Food and beverages giant PepsiCo has named Indian-born senior executive Jaya Kumar as president of its $2-billion Quaker Foods and Snacks division.
Kumar will lead the division that has a large portfolio of brands including Quaker cereals, the chewy granola bars, and Aunt Jemima mixes and syrups, the company said in a statement.
He joins several senior executives of Indian origin who are at the helm of the $43 billion food and beverages giant, including chairman and chief executive Indra Nooyi and senior vice president of corporate strategy Vivek Sankaran.
An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, Kumar will be based in Chicago and report to PepsiCo America’s Foods chief executive John Compton. Kumar was till recently chief marketing officer for PepsiCo.
“Jaya brings a powerful combination of innovation, marketing and retail capabilities to his new role at Quaker,” said Compton.
“As our global mega-brand for health and wellness, Quaker is the jewel of our good-for-you portfolio of food brands. Jaya’s passion for growth, coupled with his deep expertise in consumer and shopping insights, is an unbeatable recipe for taking Quaker through its next chapter of growth.”
Prior to joining PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay business, Kumar had 18 years of international and domestic brand management and sales experience with a number of consumer goods companies such as Kraft Foods.
According to the PepsiCo statement, Kumar had transformed the marketing agenda and key organizational capabilities at Frito-Lay to drive innovation – which he did by integrating customer sales, marketing, research and development.
One of his consumer-related promotions took the top spot on the USA Today ad meter earlier this year and earned the $1-million prize that came with that honour from Frito-Lay.