PepsiCo’s CHRO, Ronald Schellekens, will retire at the end of the year, the company announced April 12. Becky Schmitt, EVP and CPO at Cognizant, will take his place.
Schellekens will have held the role for nearly five years when he retires; he said in a LinkedIn post he will remain in the role until Oct. 1 and with PepsiCo until the end of the year. He previously served as PepsiCo’s SVP of human resources before stints at Shell, Vodafone and Vodacom. He returned to PepsiCo as CHRO in 2018.
"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, in a statement.
His successor, Schmitt, previously served as CPO for both Sam’s Club and Walmart’s e-commerce and corporate functions. Schmitt said on LinkedIn she will join the company June 1 to begin the transition.
