Del Pozzo leaving PepsiCo and not backfilled. Major Gatorade changes coming…
9 replies (most recent on top)
What’s the deal with Chicago?
Apparently Gatorade will become part of PBNA. It makes sense to absorb them into the portfolio, but still it's a major indicator of what's to come.
It's public already. He's heading to Hersey.
You would expect this kind of message to come from Ramon as it has over the past couple of years. If it's coming from Ram, Ramon may already have one foot out the door. Ram will be his replacement.
"As such, the decision has been made not to backfill Mike’s role in kind and instead use this moment to reduce internal complexities, closely integrating key functions of the Gatorade business—Marketing, Sports, and Supply Chain – into their respective PBNA functions"
Dear Associates,
A hallmark of PepsiCo is our ability to develop and build admired leaders. Many of these leaders continue to shape the future of PepsiCo while others are called upon to lead beyond our walls, leveraging their PepsiCo training and leadership skills. Today is one of those days. Mike Del Pozzo, President and GM, Gatorade, has made the decision to leave PepsiCo after 23 extraordinary years with the organization.
In his role, Mike was a critical leader in the G2DSD transformation, and was the architect behind the Gatorade Portfolio, a new platform for our sports business to expand beyond the sports drinks space and meet the needs of every athlete and exerciser. Across his career, Mike held multiple leadership roles across all PepsiCo business units, including the roles of Chief Customer Officer of Frito-Lay US, SVP, Commercial Planning for PBNA and SVP and GM of the PepsiCo Kroger business.
With Mike’s departure, we took this inflection point to think differently and deliberately about how to best position the Gatorade organization for the future. Gatorade is one of our most powerful brands, with a unique culture and distinct position in the market, and while those things remain core tenets of the business, we see opportunities to strengthen and streamline the portfolio’s operating model. As such, the decision has been made not to backfill Mike’s role in kind and instead use this moment to reduce internal complexities, closely integrating key functions of the Gatorade business—Marketing, Sports, and Supply Chain – into their respective PBNA functions, while continuing to prioritize our high-growth areas of the business. The business will continue to operate out of Chicago.
Integrated Approach to Key Functions
To unlock greater speed and efficiency at scale, the Gatorade Marketing, Sports and Supply Chain teams will now report into the PBNA functional lead. Key leadership moves include:
Anuj Bhasin, VP, Chief Brand Officer, will report into Greg Lyons, PBNA CMO.
Brett O’Brien, SVP, Sports COE, will report into Greg Lyons, PBNA CMO and matrix into Hernán Tantardini, PFNA CMO.
Ian Chown, VP, Supply Chain & Manufacturing, will shift his current dotted line reporting to directly report into Luis Marquez, SVP, Manufacturing COE.
Continued Focus on High-Growth and Innovative Areas for Gatorade
Gatorade is driving several of the highest-growth areas of PBNA in the Beyond the Core space. These critical areas include Value-Added Protein, Enhancers, Equipment and it is important for us to continue to place a heavy emphasis on innovation within these categories and maintain growth in new spaces. As such, Matt Murray, currently SVP Beyond the Core, will take on an expanded role with the additional scope of harmonizing our warehouse selling and capabilities. Matt will report directly into me and serve as a member of the PBNA Executive Committee. Christina Menendez, VP, Growth Acceleration, will report directly into Matt and continue to lead Warehouse operations for Gatorade.
Please join me in thanking Mike for his 23 years of exemplary service at PepsiCo.
As we look towards the future of the Gatorade Portfolio, I am confident these strategic shifts will enable us to scale more effectively, while continuing to drive growth.
Image
Ram Krishnan
CEO, PepsiCo Beverages North America
What a twist. Cam someone please paste that note (for those of us who already left)?
Yes, in a note from RAM.
Was it announced that he's not being backfilled?