She has got the fizz. And she is cool. Yes, she is a cool executive, every Indian professional looks up to as his or her role model. President and CFO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi is one of the most powerful corporate executives in the US. Nooyi goes to every Pepsi event dressed in a sari. She is proud of her Indian roots and she knows what has taken her to where she is now: "Being a woman, being a foreign -born, you've got to be smarter than anyone else and even though I've been in the corporate world for nearly 16 years, I still work on expanding my knowledge and broadening my horizons." Nooyi graduated from Madras Christian College with a degree in chemistry, physics and maths. She did her master's in finance and marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

She also holds a master's degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Management. Nooyi is the only India-born Senior Executive in PepsiCo. The cherubic lady started off her career in 1980 with Boston Consulting Group. In 1986, she joined Motorola as the Vice-President (corporate strategy & planning). Four years later, she joined Asian Brown Boveri and worked as the Vice-President (corporate strategy & planning) for four years and maintained a very good rapport with Percy Barnevik, CEO, of the company.

In 1994, she joined PepsiCo as chief strategist and got involved in every major strategic decision the company in the years after that. That includes the drive to spin off Pepsico's fast food chain in 1997, acquiring Tropicana in 1998, and the $13-billion move to buy Quaker Oats. Nooyi, who stays with her husband Raj and their two daughters, maintains a puja room at their home in Boston, Connecticut. PepsiCo Chief, Roger Enrico once summed her up thus: "Indra is off the charts. The energy and time she puts in are incredible.'' Besides her work in PepsiCo, Nooyi also serves as successor fellow at Yale Corporation and the advisory board of Yale University president's Council of International Activities.

She is a member of the Boards of Motorola, the International Rescue Committee, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. In luring her to join PepsiCo, Pepsi's then CEO Wayne Calloway told her: "Jack Welch is the best CEO I know, and GE is probably the finest company. But, I have a need for someone like you, and I would make PepsiCo a special place for you.'' She has indeed made things cool for the company!