Paula Santilli

As CEO of PepsiCo Latin America, Paula Santilli oversees more than 80,000 employees as well as the company’s fastest-growing market. In 2022, the Latin America business posted revenue of $9.8 billion, a 21% increase over the previous year. (Global revenue for PepsiCo in 2022 was $86.4 billion.) An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Santilli, who was born in Argentina and started at PepsiCo in 2009, has coauthored three books on female empowerment and the need to close the gender gap in leadership positions. As well as championing other female leaders within the organization (56% of Santilli’s executive team are women), she has also made it a priority to increase the economic participation of Latin American women more broadly. One example of this is her involvement in the company’s She Feeds the World initiative, which addresses gender inequality in agriculture. As PepsiCo undergoes a global strategic transformation that prioritizes ESG goals, Santilli has already achieved the impressive feat of having all operations in Latin America run on renewable energy.