Pepsi-Cola North America (PCNA) announced that Cie Nicholson is being promoted to senior vice president and chief marketing officer for PCNA, with Meena Mansharamani filling a newly created post as senior vice president-innovation and insights. Both Nicholson and Mansharamani will report to PCNA president and CEO Dawn Hudson.
Nicholson succeeds Dave Burwick, who recently was named president of Pepsi-QTG Canada. She will be accountable for traditional marketing practices across PCNA's entire portfolio of brands, overseeing advertising, media, brand development, promotional activities and sports and grassroots marketing for the company's carbonated soft drinks and non-carbonated beverages.
As vice president-non-carbonated beverages since 2004, Nicholson has raised the value of PCNA's non-carbonated portfolio, which includes Aquafina, SoBe, Dole and Tropicana juice drinks as well as joint ventures with Lipton and Starbucks. She served previously as vice president-carbonated soft drink flavors, providing strong leadership in driving national distribution of Sierra Mist and innovating under Mountain Dew. Among her greatest contributions to the company's growth, she directed the 2001 launch of Mountain Dew Code Red. Nicholson joined PCNA in 1997.
"Cie is primed and ready to run the marketing organization," said Hudson. "She's one of our most intuitive thinkers and leaders -- a creative and assertive marketer who acts decisively."
Mansharamani will lead PCNA's innovation and insights capabilities, including consumer research, product and package innovation and the identification of new opportunities. She will work across the division to retool PCNA's product and package mix to meet emerging consumer and customer needs.
Mansharamani has reported to Hudson for the past year, identifying long-term priorities as vice president-strategic initiatives. Her work with the marketing team and bottling system has focused on developing sustainable growth strategies in water and non-carbonated beverages. As vice president-corporate strategy, she made innovation a much more visible part of strategic planning, bringing division strategies into line with PepsiCo's growth agenda. She also has been a very visible champion of PepsiCo's health-and-wellness initiatives. Mansharamani joined PepsiCo in 2000.
"Meena provides a big-picture perspective that is critical in today's constantly evolving marketplace," said Hudson. "While guiding our long-term innovation plans, she will arm our marketing and sales groups with knowledge and insights to stay connected with consumers and customers."
