PepsiCo India chief D Shivakumar quits

NEW DELHI: PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd’s chairman and CEO D Shiva kumar has re signed and will be joining Aditya Birla Group as executive vice-president (corporate strategy and business development).

Ahmed El Sheikh, senior vicepresident and general manager for PepsiCo Egypt and Jordan, will succeed Shivakumar as CEO of PepsiCo India, the beverage maker said in a statement.

Aditya Birla Group director (human resources) and CEO, Carbon Black Business, Santrupt B. Misra, confirmed Shivakumar’s appointment.

Shivakumar, who will join over the next three months, will report directly to group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla.

El Sheikh’s appointment as CEO of PepsiCo India was announced by the US firm’ s CEO (Asia, Middle East and Africa) Sanjeev Chadha. El Sheikh will join PepsiCo India on November 1 and Shivakumar will be with Pepsi till December 31.

Shivakumar did not respond to calls and messages from Mint.

Shivakumar’s decision comes within months of PepsiCo’s rival Coca-Cola India’s president (India and South-West Asia) Venkatesh Kini deciding to quit in April. Kini was succeeded by T. Krishnakumar.