Purchase, N.Y., USA - September 12, 2012, Purchase, N.Y., USA - PepsiCo, Inc. announced that its president John Compton decided to leave the company and that Zein Abdalla has been appointed as president.
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Mr. Compton has been the President of Pepsico, Inc. since March 9, 2012, and prior to that he served as CEO of Pepsico Americas Foods & Global Snacks Group. He served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Pepsi-QTG Canada, as the President and CEO of Quaker Oats Company, and as the President and CEO of Tropicana Products. Mr. Compton also served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade.
Mr. Compton began his career at PepsiCo in 1983 as a Frito-Lay Production Supervisor in the Pulaski, Tennessee manufacturing plant. He has been a Director at First Tennessee Bank National Association and First Horizon National Corp., a Director of Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., and a Director of Frito-Lay, (a division of Pepsico Inc.). Mr. Compton is a Graduate of the University of Tennessee.
Mr. Abdalla, until now PepsiCo Europe CEO, will oversee PepsiCo's global category groups (Global Beverages, Global Snacks and Global Nutrition), Global Operations (IT, Global Procurement, Supply Chain and Productivity), Global Marketing Services and Corporate Strategy.
Mr. Abdalla joined PepsiCo in 1995 and has served in a number of senior positions. Most recently he was CEO of PepsiCo Europe, responsible for food and beverage businesses in Continental Europe, UK and sub-Sahara Africa.
Prior to that, Mr. Abdalla held several leadership positions, including general manager, Europe beverage business unit; general manager, Tropicana Europe; and Franchise vice president, Pakistan and the Gulf region. He also led the complete portfolio of PepsiCo businesses in Europe. Before joining PepsiCo, Mr. Abdalla worked for Mars, Inc.
The company also announced that Enderson Guimaraes has been named CEO of PepsiCo Europe.
Mr. Guimaraes joined PepsiCo in October 2011 as president, Global Operations and was responsible for strategic sourcing management, global operations, business and information solutions and global productivity. He also previously served as president of PepsiCo’s Global Nutrition Group, responsible for four key category areas: dairy, grains, fruit and vegetables and functional (sports) nutrition.
Prior to joining PepsiCo, Mr. Guimaraes served as executive vice president of Electrolux and CEO of its major appliances business for EMEA region. Before this, he spent 10 years at Philips Electronics, first as a regional marketing executive in Latin America and ultimately as senior vice president and head of global marketing management and general manager of the VidiWall LED display business. ■