Thaindian News

New York, March 7 (IANS) PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi has become the first woman to receive the prestigious Peterson Business Award, given biennially for outstanding business leadership. Chennai-born Nooyi was given the award at an event Thursday in Greenwich, her hometown in Connecticut, in the presence of hundreds of business and community leaders.

Yale University president Richard Levin presented the award to Nooyi, a graduate of the Yale School of Management who now serves on the university’s governing board.

Nooyi is the sixth recipient of the award named by the Greenwich Library after Clementine Lockwood Peterson, who in 1992 gave a $25 million (Rs.1 billion) bequest to the library.

“Lots of people have lessons to teach you,” Nooyi said at the event, as reported by The Advocate, a Connecticut paper.

She particularly mentioned her family and upbringing with helping to prepare for the business world.

“I grew up very well taken care of,” she said. “I was always confident and secure in myself, and I think that does help.”

The first chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Pepsi, Nooyi recently told Fortune magazine that she looked to a role in Washington a few years later.

Forbes magazine recently listed her among 10 best women CEOs of large corporations who bring best returns to investors.

The Peteron award honours an individual whose innovative thinking, leadership, and sustained record of achievement have had a profound impact on the national and global economy, and whose words and deeds have demonstrated a commitment to intellectual freedom and open access to information.

Past recipients of the award include Louis Gerstner Jr., former chairman of IBM, Sanford Weill, former chairman of Citigroup, and William Harrison Jr., former chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co.