The next step
🎢🎢🎢WHAT… A… RIDE! I still remember my first day at PepsiCo, 8 and a half years back. I'd just gotten a (borrowed) computer and was chatting with Chryscia Cunha and the HR team: I was not only skipping onboarding, but I also needed to get a ticket to Argentina on the next day, because I was meeting my boss Dan Moisan for an urgent project kick off on my day 2! Hitting the ground running, PepsiCo style!! I knew right then and there I was in for an intense ride 😊
✅✅✅IT’S A WRAP! December is my last month with the company, but I still remember in my first hectic one and Laxman Narasimhan was visiting Brazil and was gracious enough to dedicate a meet and greet slot to me. He asked me what I wanted to achieve and I ‘humbly’ replied: ”to leave a small dent in the (company’s) universe”, paraphrasing Steve Job’s famous quote. He smiled approvingly and said, “well, PepsiCo is definitely the right place to do it!”.
And right he was! And boy, have we made a dent! We have delivered literally billions in net revenue realization and growth across Latin America and Europe, we built cutting edge capabilities in Revenue Management and eComm, we built strong teams and thriving communities, and more importantly, we had A LOT OF FUN doing it! Don’t get me wrong, there were ups and downs, but the most important thing at PepsiCo, like in any company, is the people you meet and the memories you build with them!
🙌🙌🙌 SO MUCH GRATITUDE! The time has come for me to move on… In my last UCL event (oh man I am going to miss those 😉) I heard something on stage from @Jason Richards, forgive me for stealing it, but it is the best way to describe the special place PepsiCo will have in my heart: if you cut me open, I will bleed blue!
I have so many people to appreciate, please forgive me if I commit an unforgivable omission here, or better yet, call me out on the comments!
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First, thanks Johannes Evenblij Garza for bringing me to this amazing company, for giving me though but life changing feedback and for always being there for me, whenever I needed! Dan Moisan , thanks for being a great, inspiring boss, and more importantly, a great human being and probably the smartest person I have ever met! Bogdan Savin thanks for giving me the opportunity to work in Europe… as an expat… in Geneva… what a fairy tale it has been!
🙏🙏🙏BIG, MASSIVE THANKS to my teams, who allowed me to lead them through these 2 incredible journeys of RM LATAM and eComm Europe: Ricardo Cuellar thanks for always helping me put things in perspective; Mauricio Nakaie , Leonardo Aio , Sergio Munakata , thank you for your trust, and more important, your friendship; Andre Plana thank you for being an unstoppable force of nature; KARLA HALLEY , Carlos Licon Rojas , @Pepe Jose de Jesus Castillo Hernandez , @beto Humberto Chavez Barreto , thanks for teaching me about PPA, Z strategy, tongue tacos and, of course, tequila!; Taisiya Merkulova and Mia Sorgi thank you for teaching me about tech and showing me data is fun!; Emma Cathie-Harris and Natalia Konieczna thank you so much for everything and every little thing (one could argue those are the most important ones), especially for being there for me during ‘you know what’ 😉; John Ridgway thank you for teaching me about digital marketing, Dallas heat and travelling the morning after, Ali Holmes thank you for teaching me eComm and how to be more ‘green’; Adam N Panzarino , Başak Aktürk , Emma Borie , Vladimir Rastorguev , Bart Hesselmans , Natasha Baskind , Avinava Banerjee , thank you for being such great team players and leaders!; Rui Francisco thank you for being a PSP ninja, for your enthusiastic welcoming of me as your countryman, for being such an incredible partner in crime and for speaking Brazilian Portuguese 😊
Also massive thanks to all my incredible peers and colleagues, who challenged me, taught me, supported me and, lets be honest, endured me 🤣 throughout these years: Daniela Cachich [ela/ella/she] , Pol Codina , José María Bagnardi , Tom Albold , Jon Kyle , Gozde Tarcan , Illona Simientkowski , Ana Maria Henao , Mauricio de Garay Schnaas , Ana Carolina Fleury Camargo , Mauricio Pordomingo , Max Ambrozy , Monica Tenorio , Gaurav Goel , Cara Keating , Matt Vickers , Janice Chopra , Claire Stone , Raphael Worek Cyjon , Danny Celoni , thank you all for being more than colleagues! Tijana Tadić , Annie Griffith-Swain thank you for being not only great HR partners, but also great therapists 😁, Lucy Davidson , thank you for that much needed hug on a cloudy day! My friends, if I had a dollar for each time one of you gave me a pearl of wisdom, a pick me up comment, a lift me up message, a shake me up feedback or even a wakeup call, I would be a billionaire! What an honor and privilege it has been to have worked alongside you all!
🏁🏁🏁FINALLY big thanks to all my formal and informal mentors throughout these years: Laxman Narasimhan , Jeff Swearingen , Colin Lenaghan , Vince Jones Dr. Athina Kanioura Ram Krishnan , Christophe Guille , Narcis Roura , David Manzini , Wim Destoop I know how busy you are and how hectic your agendas can get and even so, more often than not, you were always able to find some space to give me advice and guidance and I will be forever grateful for that.
What’s the next step for me? Well, all in due time! New year, new life as they say! Now is time to say goodbye and celebrate the journey that is ending, so please allow me to say how much I am #pepsicoproud one last time!
VIce President Revenue Management Strategy LATAM en PepsiCo
1moIt was a pleasure to work with you Celso! For sure something awesome will be your next chapter. Mucho éxito!
Wishing you all the best Celso!
Global Head of Marketing Data @ Nike | Loyalty Marketing, Digital Transformation, Data/AI Strategy
1moWhat an amazing time and career Celso! Wish you all the best for the new adventure
Congrats and wishing you the best in your new adventures! It was a pleasure to work with you though briefly!