Rachel Ferdinando named president of PepsiCo Foods Canada

The North American divisions of PepsiCo – Frito-Lay North America (FLNA), PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA) and Quaker Foods North America (QFNA) –  announces several leadership changes to bolster growth across the region.

Effective July 1, there will be a new president of PepsiCo Foods Canada (PFC), a new president of the Gatorade Performance Portfolio within PBNA, as well as new chief customer and chief marketing officers at FLNA.

“We believe in consistently providing our leaders new opportunities to stretch and grow,” said Steven Williams, CEO, PFNA. “By promoting these four top talents into new roles, we are growing the next generation of PepsiCo leaders,” added Kirk Tanner, CEO, PBNA.

Rachel Ferdinando, currently chief marketing officer for Frito-Lay U.S., will join the PepsiCo Foods Canada organization as president, backfilling Cara Keating. Ferdinando will oversee PFC HR, finance, customer development, field sales, marketing, supply chain, IT, R&D, foodservice and transformation.

Ferdinando’s five-year PepsiCo career has focused on end-to-end marketing leadership and portfolio transformation, and builds on a multi-decade career across global category and sector leadership as well as general management. Prior to joining PepsiCo in 2017, Ferdinando was vice-president and global sector leader for family care at Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Ferdinando has also held various global marketing and general management leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline, including managing director, vice-president and general manager for the Malaysia and Brunei operations, and vice-president and global business leader of Digestive Health.

Cara Keating, current president of PFC, is joining the FLNA business as chief customer officer, backfilling Mike Del Pozzo. In her new role, Keating will lead the sales function overseeing strategy, sales planning and commercialization for Frito-Lay’s U.S. customer sales organization, with responsibility for retail, e-commerce, PepsiCo customer teams, Hispanic Business Unit, and foodservice businesses.

Keating, an 18-year PepsiCo veteran, boasts a wealth of critical experiences in various geographies and in general management, customer insights, field and customer leadership roles. Since joining PepsiCo in 2004, Keating’s ability to consistently deliver results has led to progressively senior roles in customer development and field leadership across Canada.

Mike Del Pozzo, currently chief customer officer (CCO) of Frito-Lay U.S., will be returning to PBNA as president and general manager of the Gatorade Performance Portfolio, which includes Gatorade, Propel, Muscle Milk, Evolve and current and future innovation portfolio. In this role, Del Pozzo will lead the business, focusing on sales, customer management, brand building, strategy, and engaging customers and consumers through innovative portfolio plans and dynamic marketing driving category leadership.

Del Pozzo’s 20-year PepsiCo career has included many leadership roles across the business. Prior to his current role of CCO of Frito-Lay U.S., Del Pozzo was senior vice president, Commercial Planning across PBNA, having responsibilities over revenue management, ec-ommerce, and innovation planning and governance. Prior to assuming that role, he was the senior vice-president and general manager leading the PepsiCo Kroger business, which built on this roles across PepsiCo’s Walmart Business, Field Leadership, Marketing, and Operations.

Brett O’Brien, the current general manager and senior vice-president of the Gatorade Performance Portfolio (GPP), will backfill Ferdinando as the Frito-Lay U.S. chief marketing officer. As Frito-Lay’s CMO, O’Brien will lead all marketing initiatives, overseeing brand marketing, innovation, strategic insights, design and media.

For more than a decade, O’Brien has led the Gatorade and Propel brands, and has grown the portfolio to now include Muscle Milk and Evolve.