Cognizant's Becky Schmitt tapped as in-coming CHRO.

PepsiCo, Inc. on Thursday announced that Ronald Schellekens, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, has informed the company that he plans to retire at the end of this year. The company will welcome Becky Schmitt as the new Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, who will report to PepsiCo's Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta and assume full accountabilities, effective October 1st.

With almost 30 years of HR leadership experience, Becky will join the company from Cognizant, a multinational information technology services and consulting company. Previously, she was in various executive HR roles at Walmart, including Vice President and Chief People Officer (CPO) of Sam's Club. Becky also spent 21 years with Accenture in multiple senior HR roles globally, including an assignment in India. Becky earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is currently a Board Member at Teach for America, NYC chapter.

"Ronald's leadership has been instrumental in progressing how we continue to build a human-centric organization, spearheading The PepsiCo Way to unify our culture, as well as continuously optimizing our operating model to enable our long-term success," said Ramon Laguarta, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. "I'm grateful for his leadership of the HR function, for his executive committee contributions, and for being a trusted partner to me and many of our senior executives. I look forward to welcoming Becky to PepsiCo."

Schellekens rejoined PepsiCo in 2018 and has played a critical role in progressing how we Raise the Bar on Talent and Diversity, elevating our reputation as a Best Place to Work, and supporting the optimization of our operating model.

"When I rejoined PepsiCo four and a half years ago, I could not have imagined the journey we would embark on together, from a pandemic and social unrest to unprecedented growth of our business and accelerated transformation and digitization," said Ronald Schellekens. "I'm incredibly grateful to Ramon for his continued leadership and friendship, the executive committee for their partnership and support of our HR agenda, and our outstanding global community of HR professionals who demonstrate unwavering dedication to helping propel PepsiCo forward. I look forward to continuing to work business as usual and supporting Becky in her transition," he added.