Diversity and engagement are key ingredients for our success

Paula Santilli, CEO, PepsiCo Latin America

 IWD 2021

At PepsiCo, our purpose-focused agenda, “Winning with Purpose,” is embedded in our values, and gender parity is a cornerstone of it. Women inclusion in the workforce conveys innumerable benefits, with an incredible power to trigger positive change, including GDP growth, work environment, financial performance, quality and productivity, among others. That’s why we strive to improve the attraction, retention, and advancement of global and diverse associates to ensure we sustain a high-caliber pipeline of talent. As part of this strategy, we have set a global target to achieve 50 percent women in management roles and to invest $100 million dollars in the development of women, strengthening their employability and entrepreneurial skills, by 2025.

In Latin America, we're working to meet these commitments, with nearly 50% of our Executive Committee made up of women to date, and 43% of the total population female. We offer mentorship, female executive development, and leadership acceleration programs. We are committed to providing favorable ecosystems and flexible working opportunities for women to thrive at PepsiCo.

Women are a key factor across our value chain, from farmers to customers, suppliers and consumers - and it is crucial to utilize the reach and scale of PepsiCo to implement a positive change. In 2016, we launched “Women with Purpose,” an initiative that provides education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women across Latin America, and to date over 7,000 women in eight countries have benefitted. We are also working with the Inter-American Development Bank to identify gender-related challenges within PepsiCo’s potato supply chains to help us design and implement targeted local solutions that include women as key partners in the agricultural process.

We are proud to join the International Women’s Day 2021 campaign by celebrating our PepsiCo women who are choosing to challenge the status-quo and making a difference.

More importantly, we are inviting our PepsiCo organization around the world to take action and to #ChooseToChallenge.