PepsiCo vs Volkswagen: Founders, CEOs and History

PepsiCo

Founded

1965

Headquarters

Purchase, New York, United States

Current CEO

Ramon Laguarta

Employees

306,000

Volkswagen

Founded

1937

Headquarters

Wolfsburg, Germany

Current CEO

Oliver Blume

Employees

663,000

PepsiCo

• Caleb Bradham

  Caleb Bradham created "Brad's Drink" at his New Bern pharmacy in 1898, renamed it Pepsi-Cola and incorporated the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1902.

• Donald M. Kendall

  Donald M. Kendall led Pepsi-Cola and engineered its 1965 merger with Frito-Lay to form PepsiCo, which he ran as CEO until 1986.

• Herman W. Lay

  Herman W. Lay (1909-1982) started his career as a snack food salesman. In 1932, he opened a snack food operation in Nashville, Tennessee, eventually purchasing the manufacturer and renaming it H.W. Lay & Company.

Volkswagen

• Ferdinand Porsche

  Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) was an Austrian-born automotive engineer who had worked for Lohner, Austro-Daimler and Daimler-Benz before opening his own design office in Stuttgart in 1931.

PepsiCo

1. D. Wayne Calloway1986–1996

   Chief Executive Officer

   He more than doubled PepsiCo's revenues during his tenure and heavily invested in the restaurant division before it was later spun off.

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2. Roger Enrico1996–2001

   Chief Executive Officer

   He dramatically simplified the company's structure, allowing it to focus resources on its core grocery and convenience store distribution networks.

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3. Steven Reinemund2001–2006

   Chief Executive Officer

   He oversaw significant international expansion and revenue growth, setting a strong operational foundation before handing leadership to Nooyi.

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4. Indra Nooyi2006–2018

   Chief Executive Officer

   Under her 12-year tenure as CEO, PepsiCo's revenue grew by more than 80%, and she fundamentally reshaped the company's identity from a junk-food purveyor to a diversified global food and beverage giant.

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5. Ramon Laguarta2018–present

   Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer

   He sustained strong organic revenue growth and protected operating margins through historically challenging supply chain conditions, while committing the company to major sustainability and packaging reduction goals.

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Volkswagen

1. Hermann Münch1946–1947

   Chief Executive Officer

   Early executive involved in the incredibly complex immediate post-war administration of the completely destroyed factory under British military control.

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2. Heinrich Nordhoff1948–1968

   Chief Executive Officer

   The absolute legendary post-war architect who took the ruins of the VW factory and transformed the Beetle into a massive, globally beloved cultural icon and economic miracle.

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3. Kurt Lotz1968–1971

   Chief Executive Officer

   Early post-war leader who began the critical process of diversifying VW's lineup beyond relying entirely on a single model (the Beetle).

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4. Rudolf Leiding1971–1975

   Chief Executive Officer

   Crucial CEO who managed the extremely difficult, highly risky transition away from the iconic but severely outdated Beetle toward modern, front-wheel-drive water-cooled cars (like the Golf).

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5. Toni Schmücker1975–1982

   Chief Executive Officer

   Guided the company through the severe financial crises of the 1970s, ensuring the successful launch and massive adoption of the original VW Golf.

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6. Carl Hahn1982–1993

   Chief Executive Officer

   As CEO in the 1980s, he executed the massive, highly strategic acquisitions of SEAT and Skoda, laying the foundation for VW's absolute dominance in Europe.

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7. Ferdinand Piëch1993–2002

   Chief Executive Officer

   As the legendary, absolutely ruthless patriarch (and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche), he transformed VW from a struggling mass-market brand into the most powerful automotive conglomerate on Earth.

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8. Bernd Pischetsrieder2002–2006

   Chief Executive Officer

   Serving as CEO from 2002 to 2006, he oversaw the incredibly complex integration of massive luxury brands like Bugatti and Bentley into the VW Group portfolio.

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9. Martin Winterkorn2007–2015

   Chief Executive Officer

   As the notoriously demanding, absolutely feared CEO, he oversaw massive global expansion but fostered a culture of absolute terror that led engineers to cheat rather than admit failure.

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10. Matthias Müller2015–2018

    Chief Executive Officer

    As CEO during the darkest period in modern VW history, he initiated the massive cultural purge of the toxic, highly secretive engineering culture that caused the cheating scandal.

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11. Herbert Diess2018–2022

    Chief Executive Officer

    Serving as CEO, he forcefully dragged the massive, highly bureaucratic legacy automaker into the Tesla era, though his abrasive style alienated the powerful Porsche-Piëch families.

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12. Oliver Blume2022–present

    Chairman of the Board of Management

    He also ran Porsche AG alongside the group role until Michael Leiters took over as Porsche CEO on January 1, 2026, leaving Blume focused on Volkswagen Group.

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PepsiCo

• poppi2025$1.9B
• SodaStream International2018$3.2B
• The Quaker Oats Company (including Gatorade)2001$13.4B
• Tropicana Products1998$3.3B

Volkswagen

• Porsche AG2012Undisclosed
• Bentley Motors1998Undisclosed
• Auto Union / Audi1965Undisclosed