Donald M. Kendall

Donald M. Kendall is the former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.

After serving in World War II as a naval aviator, Kendall began his career at Pepsi-Cola Company as a sales representative. He held the positions of vice president in charge of marketing for the United States and president of the company's overseas operations before being named president and CEO in 1963. In 1965, Kendall engineered the merger of Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, which created PepsiCo. He was then named president and CEO of the new company. Kendall was elected chairman and CEO of PepsiCo in 1971, a position he held until his retirement in 1986. From 1986 to 1991, he served as chairman of the board of PepsiCo's executive committee.

Kendall has also been active in political, economic, and cultural organizations. Some of the positions he has held include chairman of the National Alliance of Businessmen; co-chairman of the US-USSR Trade and Economic Council, chairman of the board of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, and chairman of the board of the American Ballet Theatre Foundation.

In addition, Kendall was named to the National Business Hall of Fame by the board of editors of Fortune in 1987 and, in 1986, he was the first recipient of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund's Equal Justice Award.

He oversaw the creation of the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens, a sculpture park near PepsiCo's corporate headquarters in Purchase, NY.