Ramon Laguarta Biography and Net Worth

Ramon Laguarta is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo. PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated $70 billion in net revenue in 2020, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lays, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales. 

Ramon, a 25-year PepsiCo veteran, has served as CEO since October 3, 2018, and Chairman of the Board since February 1, 2019. As Chairman and CEO, he has begun pivoting the company toward accelerated growth, embracing a new corporate mission—to Create More Smiles with Every Sip and Every Bite—and adopting a new vision that captures PepsiCo’s competitive spirit, intense focus, and shared values: to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. “Winning with Purpose” reflects PepsiCo’s ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and embed purpose into all aspects of its business.

To help achieve these aims, Ramon is positioning the company to become Faster, Stronger, and Better: Faster by being more consumer-centric and investing to accelerate topline growth and winning in the marketplace; Stronger by transforming its capabilities and culture, with a focus on digitalizing the company, embracing new ways of working, and developing talent; and Better by continuing to integrate Purpose into its business strategy and brands, while advancing social equity in the company and its communities.

As part of this drive to build a Better company, Ramon has pushed PepsiCo to embrace a bold purpose—helping to build a more sustainable food system—with a focus on becoming PepsiCo Positive by delivering better outcomes for people and the planet. As part of this agenda, Ramon has spearheaded PepsiCo’s ambitious steps to mitigate the impacts of climate change and the visionary Beyond the Bottle strategy, which aims to offer consumers a range of great-tasting beverages, while making the company’s packaging more sustainable and fueling future growth. This strategy includes the acquisition of SodaStream, the world's leader in at-home sparkling beverage preparation, and complements the company’s sustainable packaging vision, including efforts to develop fully recyclable or compostable packaging materials.

Under Ramon’s leadership, the company is also adopting new leadership behaviors that are focused on driving high performance and building competitive advantage. These behaviors include: be consumer-centric; act as owners; focus and get things done fast; voice opinions fearlessly, raise the bar on talent and diversity; celebrate success; and act with integrity.

Prior to becoming CEO, Ramon was President of PepsiCo. In this role, he was responsible for shaping the company’s corporate strategy, working closely with business units to deliver top-line growth, driving productivity to enable this growth, and investing in new areas of disruptive innovation. In this capacity he oversaw PepsiCo's Global Category Groups; its Global Operations, Corporate Strategy, and Public Policy & Government Affairs functions; and The PepsiCo Foundation.

Between 2015 and 2017, Ramon served as Chief Executive Officer of the sector formerly known as Europe Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA), one of PepsiCo’s most complex businesses, with responsibility for leading the company’s beverage, food and snacks business in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. In that role, he successfully transformed ESSA’s beverage portfolio, developed the company’s juice business, and advanced the company’s sustainability mission.

Prior to serving as CEO of ESSA, Ramon held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility in Europe, including leading the acquisition and successful integration of the company’s dairy business in Russia. Before joining PepsiCo in 1996, he worked for Chupa Chups, S.A., a Spanish leading confectionery company, where he held a number of international roles in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. 

In addition to being a member of the PepsiCo Board of Directors, Ramon also currently serves as a director of Visa Inc. He also currently serves as the Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Board of Stewards for the Food Systems Initiative.

Ramon is a native of Barcelona and holds an MBA from ESADE Business School in Spain and a Master’s in International Management (M.M.) from Thunderbird School of Global Management. He and his wife, Maria, are the proud parents of three sons.