Pepsi chief again tops list of powerful women

POWER BROKER Indra Nooyi has been working to boost Pepsi's global business. This is her third year atop Fortune's list of powerful women.

NEW YORK - Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo Inc., the world's largest snack maker, was named the most powerful woman in business by Fortune magazine for the third year in a row.

The India-born Nooyi, 52, is aiming to boost business for the Purchase, N.Y.-based company outside the United States, where soda sales are declining and the cost of potatoes, corn, and other commodities used to make snacks has led to price increases.

"Nooyi has moved swiftly to offset slowing beverage sales in North America by expanding the international business, which now represents 26 percent of revenues," Fortune writers Jessica Shambora and Beth Kowitt said yesterday on the magazine's website. "She is also pushing healthier products like orange juice with omega-3 fatty acids."

There are eight newcomers to the list, including the youngest executive to make the lineup - Marissa Mayer, 33, vice president of search products for Google Inc. She was ranked number 50.

The list is Fortune's 11th annual list of the 50 most powerful women in business. The magazine ranked them based on the size, importance, and health of their for-profit companies in the global economy; their career momentum; and their cultural and social influence.

Editor-at-large Patricia Sellers said it was the "most competitive" ranking of female business executives yet.

Following Nooyi on the list is Irene Rosenfeld, 55, CEO of Kraft Foods Inc.; Patricia A. Woertz, 55, CEO of Archer Daniels Midland Co.; Anne Mulcahy, 55, CEO of Xerox Corp.; and Angela Braly, 47, CEO of WellPoint Inc. Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, 54, chairman of Harpo Entertainment Group, was eighth.

Twelve women fell off the list, including former eBay Inc. chief executive Meg Whitman, now an adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain; and Sallie Krawcheck, who resigned as head of global wealth management for Citigroup Inc. earlier this month.