After stints at Boston Consulting Group and Motorola, Nooyi joined PepsiCo's (PEP, Fortune 500) strategy and development team as an SVP in 1994. She moved her way up the ranks at the company and was named CEO in October 2006. PepsiCo has made major investments in India, China, and Russia. In 2011, PepsiCo acquired Russian yogurt company Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods for $4.2 billion, giving it a major opening into the Eastern European market.
Nooyi has also focused on bolstering PepsiCo's nutritional reputation abroad. "I grew up in an emerging market, and I cannot forget that," Nooyi told Fortune in 2004, when she was CFO of the company. "I have a basic belief that positive nutrition is important in developing markets."