Indra Nooyi, who recently stepped down as the CEO of PepsiCo, has joined the board of directors of Amazon.com.

Indian-born Nooyi left PepsiCo after 24 years with the company. Prior to taking over as the CEO in 2006, she had served PepsiCo as its chief financial officer from 2001.

Advertisement

Revealing the news of her joining in an SEC filing, Amazon said Nooyi would also serve on the board’s audit committee.

“On February 25, 2019, the Board of Directors of Amazon.com, Inc. (the “Company”) elected Indra K. Nooyi as a director of the Company, and also appointed her to the Audit Committee of the Board,” it said.

At PepsiCo, Nooyi had also served as the chairman of its board of directors from May 2007 to February 2019.

Having joined the company in 1994, Nooyi was elected to PepsiCo’s board of directors and became its president and CFO in 2001. During her tenure, she took up several leadership roles in finance, corporate strategy and development, and strategic planning for the company.

Nooyi has also served as a director of Schlumberger Limited since April 2015.

In connection with her election to the Amazon board, the company said in its SEC filing, Nooyi was granted a “restricted stock unit award under the Company’s 1997 Stock Incentive Plan for 549 shares of common stock of the Company, to vest in three equal annual installments beginning on May 15, 2020, assuming continued service as a director”.

Nooyi is the second high-profile director to join Amazon’s board this month.
Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer too joined the company recently.

Earlier this year, multiple media reports had suggested that the Indian-American business leader was under consideration for heading the World Bank.

Quoting anonymous administration sources, the media reports had said US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka was said to be backing Nooyi for the World Bank job.

Ivanka is said to be an admirer of Nooyi and considered her as a mentor.

Trump however announced early February that he had chosen David Malpass, undersecretary for international affairs at the US Treasury Department, as the US candidate for the next president of the World Bank.

Selection of a new World Bank head was necessitated after Jim Yong Kim, the former World Bank chief, abruptly resigned in early January. He stepped down on 1 February.