4 food CEOs make Fortune's Most Powerful Women list

By Carolyn Heneghan | December 14, 2015

Dive Brief:

• Fortune named four food and beverage industry CEOs to its Most Powerful Women list, including Indra Nooyi, CEO and chairman of PepsiCo (No. 2); Irene Rosenfeld, CEO and chairman of Mondelez (No. 9); Denise Morrison, CEO and president of Campbell Soup (No. 24), and Ilene Gordon, CEO, chairman, and president of Ingredion (No. 45).
• Nooyi has overseen PepsiCo for nearly a decade and over that time has significantly boosted R&D, scored a marketing partnership with the NBA, and, in a controversial move, removed aspartame from Diet Pepsi in response to consumers' health concerns (though many taste buds have since suffered).
• Rosenfeld has led Mondelez as it works to cut costs in addition to moves like investing in e-commerceand merging its coffee business with that of D.E. Master Blenders 1753 to form Jacobs Douwe Egbert so Mondelez can focus more on the fast-growing snack industry.

Dive Insight:

Morrison has been vocal about the challenges facing major food and beverage manufacturers today. In recent years, she has steered the company toward acquisitions of healthy food brands and the retooling of its portfolio to reflect consumers' healthier lifestyles.

With Ingredion, Gordon has been at the helm of producing many of the industry's non-GMO and gluten-free ingredients, which have been key trends the industry has followed as consumer preferences continue to change. However, Gordon also said earlier this year that she expects non-GMO foods to grow but eventually plateau, as gluten-free foods have.

These CEOs, especially Nooyi, Rosenfeld, and Morrison, have led their companies despite industry pressures. These companies are still performing: PepsiCo increased its earnings outlook for the year last quarter; Mondelez beatprofit estimates last quarter as cost-cutting efforts show results; and Campbell also raised its profit outlook for the year as the company has beaten its savings goals through aggressive cost-cutting.

The Harvard Business Review's best-performing CEOs in the world list only included two women, and not ones featured here. HBR said last year, 3% of the CEOs evaluated were female. "It's not because women are not smart and not willing to work hard — it's that the pipeline doesn't exist," Priti Shah, the vice president of leadership product strategy and corporate development for Skillsoft, told HR Dive. "Until boardrooms make the pipeline a priority for mixed genders, you are going to continue to see this."