Indra K. Nooyi, PepsiCo Chairman Receives 2008 Peterson Business Award

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Greenwich, CT – Leaders from the corporate world convened in Greenwich on Thursday, March 6 as Indra K. Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, was presented with Greenwich Library’s prestigious Peterson Business Award at the 2008 Peterson Business Award Dinner.

Mrs. Nooyi spoke to an audience of more than 420 corporate leaders and community residents, focusing on the value that the Greenwich Library has added to her life. She spoke about how "A library is a place where the culture gathers. It makes available the treasures of the mind to those who cannot afford to put it on their own shelves."

Richard C. Levin, president of Yale University, presented Mrs. Nooyi with the Peterson Business Award. In his remarks, Mr. Levin spoke about how "Public Libraries are the heart of the American dream ...and were founded to ensure that all should have access to knowledge and the opportunity for self-improvement made possible through reading."

The event’s organizers encompassed executives from many local businesses. Thomas J. Neff, Chairman of Spencer Stuart, U.S., served as head of the Corporate Committee whose members included Members of the Corporate Committee included Blyth, Inc.; BNY Wealth Management; Capital Partners; Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP; Davis Polk & Wardwell; General Atlantic; Goldman Sachs; KPMG; LexisNexis Group; Mercury Partners; The New York Mets; Omnicom Group; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP; Richards of Greenwich; Sageview Capital; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and The Thomson Corporation.

The Peterson Business Award Dinner, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Greenwich, is a biennial fundraiser aiding the continuing renovation and modernization of the Greenwich Library. The 2008 event was chaired by Greenwich Library trustees Jennifer Baldock and Susan Bevan.

Mrs. Nooyi, who is a resident of Greenwich, joined PepsiCo in 1994 and directed worldwide strategy for over a decade. In 2006, Mrs. Nooyi was named CEO of PepsiCo, becoming only the fifth CEO in PepsiCo’s 41-year history. She became Chairman of the Board, in May 2007. While at PepsiCo, Mrs. Nooyi has played key roles in the divestiture of the company’s restaurants into the successful YUM! Brands, Inc.; the acquisition of Tropicana; the spin-off and public offering of company-owned bottling operations into the Pepsi Bottling Group; and PepsiCo’s merger with Quaker Oats. Mrs. Nooyi has been named as one of The Wall Street Journal’s "50 Women to Watch" and has been ranked first on Fortune magazine’s list of the most powerful women in business. In addition to being a member of the PepsiCo Board of Directors, Ms. Nooyi serves on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Motorola, the International Rescue Committee and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. She is a Successor Fellow of the Yale Corporation and is on the advisory board of the Yale School of Management. She also serves on the board of trustees of the Eisenhower Fellowships and the Asia Society and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission. Richard C. Levin, the Frederick William Beinecke Professor of Economics, has been Yale’s President since 1993. Before becoming president, he chaired the economics department and served as dean of Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Levin is a trustee of the Hewlett Foundation, and a director of American Express. He holds honorary degrees from Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, and Peking universities and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Peterson Business Award was established by the Greenwich Library and the Peterson Foundation to recognize and honor an individual whose "innovative thinking, leadership, and sustained record of achievement has 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."

The Peterson Business Award is named in honor of Clementine Lockwood Peterson, whose 1992 bequest of $25 million made possible a new 32,000 square-foot wing at the Greenwich Library. Designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli, this wing contains expanded business and music collections. Mrs. Peterson’s gift was made in memory of her son, Jonathan, and her husband, J. Whitney Peterson. The Peterson Business Award was conceived in order to celebrate Mrs. Peterson’s extraordinary generosity and to recognize outstanding business leadership.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IBM, became the first recipient of the Peterson Business Award in 1997. The award was presented by former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford. Two years later, Sanford Weill, Chairman of Citigroup, was presented the award by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin. In 2002 Lynne Cheney, author and wife of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, presented the third Peterson Business award to William B. Harrison, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JP Morgan Chase. The fourth honoree was Dr. Henry A. McKinnell, Chairman and CEO of Pfizer Inc., who was presented by Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History. The fifth honoree was Thomas J. Neff, Chairman of Spencer Stuart, who was presented the award by Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Electric Corporation.