PepsiCo’s PIO chief Indra Nooyi joins Trump strategic policy forum
15 Dec 2016 11:45 PM GMT
Indian-American PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has joined Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum that aims to assist the president-elect in implementing his economic agenda, the presidential transition team said on Wednesday.
Chennai-born Nooyi, 61, is the only Indian-origin executive in the 19-member President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, which was first announced early this week. Three new members were also announced in addition to the current 16.
The other corporate bigwigs to join the forum are Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, and SpaceX and Tesla chairman Elon Musk.
The forum, composed of some of America’s most highly respected and successful business leaders, will meet with the president frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as the president implements his economic agenda, a media release said adding the forum will be chaired by Stephen A Schwarzman, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Blackstone.
“America has the most innovative and vibrant companies in the world, and the pioneering CEOs joining this forum today are at the top of their fields,” Trump said.
“My administration is going to work together with the private sector to improve the business climate and make it attractive for firms to create new jobs across the United States from Silicon Valley to the heartland,” he said.
According to the presidential transition team, members of the forum will be charged with providing their individual views to the president informed by their unique vantage points in the private sector on how government policy impacts economic growth, job creation and productivity.
“The forum is designed to provide direct input to the president from many of the best and brightest in the business world in a frank, non-bureaucratic and non-partisan manner,” the media release said.
As chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Nooyi heads a company that has more than USD 63 billion in annual net revenue, and more than USD 35 billion in the US alone.
PepsiCo is the largest US food and beverage company with about 110,000 employees and 100 plants across the country.
During the general election, Nooyi was a known supporter of Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
After Trump’s victory she said that Clinton’s defeat in the election has left her daughters, gay workers, employees and non-whites devastated as there was “serious concern” among them about their safety in the US with Trump as president.
“I had to answer a lot of questions from my daughters, from our employees. They were all in mourning. Our employees were all crying. The question that they are asking, especially those who are not white - ‘Are we safe’, women are asking ‘Are we safe’, LGBT people are asking ‘Are we safe’,” she said at a New York conference on November 10.
At the same time she congratulated Trump on his victory.
“The process of democracy happened, we just have to let life go on. We have to come together and life has to go on,” she said.
Trump nominates Rick Perry to crucial Energy Secretary post
US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday picked Rick Perry as the energy secretary, a department that the former Texas governor once wanted to abolish.
Perry, 66, a former Republican presidential aspirant in 2008 and 2012, was once a vocal critic of Trump during the primaries.
“As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy,” Trump said.
In a statement, the transition team described him as one of the most successful governors in modern history, having led Texas through a sustained period of economic growth and prosperity by developing the state’s energy resources and infrastructure, and making low-cost energy available to companies and families. “My administration is going to make sure we take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation, and Rick Perry is going to do an amazing job as the leader of that process,” Trump said.
Houston, the biggest cities in Texas, which is one of the country s largest states and one of the largest economies in the world, is considered as the energy capital of the world. It is home to top energy companies of the world. “As the former governor of the nation’s largest energy producing state, I know American energy is critical to our economy and our security,” Perry said.
“I look forward to engaging in a conversation about the development, stewardship and regulation of our energy resources, safeguarding our nuclear arsenal, and promoting an American energy policy that creates jobs and puts America first,” he added.
With his executive experience, Perry will carry out Trump s vision to make America energy independent, create millions of new jobs, and protect clean air and water, the transition team said.
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