Ramon Laguarta, chairman of the board and CEO of PepsiCo: winner of 2026 Esade Award
Esade Alumni has announced that the winner of this year’s Esade award – a recognition of outstanding track records in leadership, impact and contributions to society – is the Esade alumnus Ramon Laguarta, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. The award ceremony will take place on May 20th at L’Auditori in Barcelona during the 30th Annual Esade Alumni Day entitled “Seeing the world, shaping the future” attended by Esade’s global alumni community.
The jury applauded Ramon Laguarta’s global leadership, strategic mindset and crucial contribution to transforming one of the world’s largest food and drink companies.
Since his appointment as CEO in 2018 and Chairman in 2019, he has repositioned the company toward new growth aspirations with an ambitious vision focused on accelerating performance. Under his leadership, PepsiCo has structured its growth strategy around three pillars: evolving its portfolio to meet changing consumer needs, international expansion, and capturing new consumption occasions, with a special focus on meals and Away From Home channels. This acceleration is also framed within pep+ (PepsiCo Positive), a comprehensive strategic transformation agenda with sustainability at the center of value creation and growth, generating a positive impact on people and the planet.
With a track record of three decades in the company since 1996 and a first-rate academic background including an MBA from Esade and a Master in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona, Laguarta has developed an international career in the food and drink industry, overseeing complex, high-growth markets. Between 2015 and 2017, he was the CEO of the ESSA region (Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa), one of PepsiCo’s most complicated regions, after holding a variety of management posts in Europe.
Also taking part, in addition to the award winner, will be Anna Xicoy, president of the Esade Foundation Board of Trustees; Daniel Traça, Esade director general; Jorge Alcover, president of Esade Alumni; Patricia Valentí, director of Esade Alumni, and Francesc Xavier Mena, professor at Esade.
About the Esade Awards
The Esade Awards are held by the Esade alumni community to acknowledge and honor persons and entities whose careers, activities or services are underpinned by the values that define the founding spirit of Esade, and who are an outstanding example for others.
Previous years’ winners include Joaquín Duato, CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Ana Botín, president of Banco Santander; James Quincey, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company; Enrique Lores, president of Imaging & Printing Solutions at HP; Pablo Isla, CEO of Inditex; Mikael Ohlsson, CEO of Ikea; Carlos Slim, CEO of Inbursa; Indra K. Nooyi, president and CEO of PepsiCo; Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever; Hiroshi Mikitani, founder, president and CEO of Rakuten, Inc.; Gonzalo Gortázar, CEO of CaixaBank; Niklas Adalberth, founder of the Norrsken Foundation, and Gabriel Escarrer, president and CEO of Meliá.
