Building on progress made to implement an impactful community and racial equality agenda, PepsiCo announced the creation of a new North America organization dedicated to accelerating efforts inside and outside of the company to help address inequalities for historically excluded people and underserved businesses and communities.

The new Multicultural Business and Equity Development Organization will operate across PepsiCo's North America beverage and convenient foods businesses and integrate work streams aimed at addressing a variety of business and people priorities into a one-team approach that will enable PepsiCo to drive sustained change and scale faster across its entire North America businesses.

Underscoring the importance of this move, PepsiCo has appointed Derek Lewis as its first-ever president of Multicultural Business and Equity Development to lead this effort. A 34-year veteran of PepsiCo, Lewis most recently served as president of PepsiCo Beverages North America's South Division and has played an integral leadership role in the company's broader diversity and community engagement agenda.  In his new role, he will create and lead a new organization tasked with ensuring end-to-end business inequalities are addressed to maximize overall results and impact.  Lewis will report to Kirk Tanner, CEO, PepsiCo Beverages North America and Steven Williams, CEO, PepsiCo Foods North America.