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Indra K. Nooyi Named 2009 Horatio Alger Award Winner
Chairman & CEO of PepsiCo to be Inducted in April in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON, February 2, 2009 – The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is pleased to announce that Indra K. Nooyi will be presented with the 2009 Horatio Alger Award and inducted as a lifetime member of the association for her determination in achieving success.

Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo in New York, will be officially inducted into the prestigious association on April 3rd in Washington, D.C. Recipients must have overcome humble beginnings or adversity to achieve success and serve as outstanding role models to the national community.

“We welcome these extraordinary leaders into the Horatio Alger Association. Each has demonstrated steadfast determination and amazing achievements that support our unwavering mission of honoring true American success stories,” said David L. Sokol, president and CEO of the Horatio Alger Association. “Indra is a role model for today’s youth by encouraging motivation, purpose and superior accomplishments.”

Nooyi was born in Chennai (formerly Madras), India, the daughter of an accountant and homemaker. Her parents expected Nooyi to follow the path of tradition: arranged marriage and a career as a homemaker. Although her family was both conservative and traditional, Nooyi’s mother also encouraged her daughter to think big and dream. As a student at Madras Christian College, Nooyi started to break the mold of tradition by joining the cricket team and playing guitar in an all-female rock band. After earning her undergraduate degree in chemistry, physics and math she went on to earn an MBA at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta.

With much hesitation from her parents, Nooyi left India for the U.S. where she attended Yale University and earned a Master of Public and Management degree. Following graduation, Nooyi worked at Boston Consulting Group for six years directing international corporate strategy projects. She continued to develop a strong record as a global strategist in her next positions at Motorola and then Asea Brown Boveri. In 1993, PepsiCo recruited Nooyi to lead the organization’s strategic planning and mergers acquisitions department. Nooyi’s many accomplishments at PepsiCo include leading its acquisitions of Tropicana and Quaker, which included its Gatorade business.

In October 2006, Nooyi made history by becoming PepsiCo’s first female CEO. She then assumed an additional role as Chairman of the Board in May 2007. As one of about a dozen women, and an even smaller number of Asian women, at the helm of Fortune 500 companies Nooyi leads one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, with more than $39 billion in sales. PepsiCo employs approximately 185,000 people worldwide and its products are sold in more than 200 countries.

In addition to her roles at PepsiCo, Nooyi also is chairman of the board of the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) and serves as a member of the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International Rescue Committee, Catalyst, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She also is a Successor Fellow of Yale Corporation and a member of the Board of Trustees of Eisenhower Fellowships.

In addition to Nooyi, ten other outstanding individuals who have accomplished remarkable achievements through hard work, self-reliance and perseverance will receive the 2009 Horatio Alger Award. They are:

• James S.C. Chao, chairman, Foremost Group
• David Foster, producer, composer and arranger, Reprise Records & 143 Records
• Clayton Paul Hilliard, president and owner, Badger Oil Corporation
• Rebecca MacDonald, founder and executive chair, Energy Savings Income Fund (international recipient)
• Michael G. Morris, chairman, president and CEO, American Electric Power
• Carl H. Ricker, Jr., founder, chairman and CEO, Azalea Holdings; partner, Campus Crest Communities; chairman, executive committee, Capital Bank Corp; co-founder and chairman, MXT Card Services, LLC
• Thomas Joseph Shannon, Jr., founder, T-Bird Restaurant Group, Inc. and Village Development Co.
• Denzel Washington, Academy Award winning actor and director
• Robert L. Wright, Jr., chairman, FE Holdings, Inc.
• Stephen A. Wynn, chairman and CEO, Wynn Resorts

The new members will be presented with their awards April 3rd at the Horatio Alger Awards Induction Ceremonies. Activities include three days of meetings and celebrations in some of the nation’s most historic buildings. The Horatio Alger National Scholars, remarkable high school seniors, will also be formally honored during the three-day gathering.

A complete list of all of the Horatio Alger Members can be found at http://www.horatioalger.com/members.cfm.

About The Horatio Alger Association
Founded in 1947, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans continues to fulfill its mission of honoring the achievements of outstanding individuals in our society who have succeeded in spite of adversity and of encouraging young people to pursue their dreams through higher education. The Horatio Alger Association offers three annual scholarship programs: the National Scholarship Program and state scholarship programs, and graduate grants. The association awards nearly $7 million annually in college scholarships and has given more than $63 million to deserving students since 1984. The association is a 2008 Combined Federal Campaign participant, ID# 77062. For more information, please visit www.horatioalger.org.

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