Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. Indra Nooyi is the latest Indian American to be hand-picked by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to advise him and help him run the country.
Ms. Nooyi’s appointment to his strategic and policy forum was announced Wednesday by Mr. Trump’s transition team as one of three new appointments to the 16-member group. SpaceX Corp’s Elon Musk and Uber Technologies Inc.’s Travis Kalanick were the other two appointments.
The forum will be called upon to meet frequently with Mr. Trump to discuss his economic agenda.
“America has the most innovative and vibrant companies in the world, and the pioneering CEOs joining this Forum today are at the top of their fields,” Mr. Trump said in a news release. “My Administration is going to work together with the private sector to improve the business climate and make it attractive for firms to create new jobs across the United States from Silicon Valley to the heartland.”
Mr. Trump last month nominated Indian-American Seema Verma, CEO and founder of SVC Inc ., a U.S.-based health policy consulting company to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “She has decades of experience advising on Medicare and Medicaid policy and helping states navigate our complicated systems,” he said.
In November, Mr. Trump picked South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley who is Indian in origin to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Ms. Nooyi, who was born in Chennai, India and later went to Yale University to study public policy and management, will have a direct line, along with others in the group, to Mr. Trump to advise him on economic policy, job creation and productivity, said the release.
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