Dawn Hudson

Arguably the most important female marketer in sports, former Pepsi Cola North America president and CEO Dawn Hudson served as the keeper of keys to a deep marketing arsenal. Pepsi's sponsorships include NFL and Major League Baseball league and team deals, along with Mountain Dew's seminal and continuing support of action sports. Hudson was responsible for all functions of the organization's operations. That know-how has led her to speak with electricity about the power of marketing and the influence of product branding on an industry

Voice of a new generation's drinks. Rooted in PepsiCo's "Power of One" principles, PepsiCo Foodservice leverages the scale and breadth of the corporation's brands to provide a unified voice to its customers and deliver competitive advantage in the fast-growing foodservice and vending channels. Hudson shepherded great innovation and physical volume gains across a broad assortment of carbonated and non-carbonated products. While a strong supporter of innovation, she also promoted incremental, ongoing growth through greater focus on core brands and activities. At the same time, Hudson championed increased scale and interdependence in the vast system of bottlers through which Pepsico beverages go to market. She heightened sales, manufacturing and information technology capabilities to better serve an evolving retail marketplace. Hudson's work across the corporation grew its collective business with PepsiCo's biggest retail and foodservice customers.

Marketing with taste. Prior to taking the Pepsico helm, Hudson was senior vice president of strategy and marketing. In that role, she led channel strategy and marketing, product innovation, joint ventures and marketplace initiative development. One of the country's preeminent marketers, she has more than 20 years of strategic brand-building experience behind some of the world's best-known consumer products. From the "Joy of Cola" to the return of the "Pepsi Challenge," Hudson has driven Pepsi's efforts to create high-impact, sustainable programs while guiding major advances in its advertising and communications. Before coming to PepsiCo, Hudson was managing director at D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles in New York. Prior to that, she was one of three managing partners in the New York/Chicago offices of DDB Needham, where she also was director of account management and integrated marketing. Hudson was a partner at TLK in Chicago and a brand manager for Bristol Myers in the early 1980s.

Hudson serves on the boards of the American Beverage Association, LPGA, Lowe's Corporation and the American Film Institute. In 2005 she was listed among Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business." In 2002, she was named "Advertising Woman of the Year" by Advertising Women of New York. She also has won the "B*East" award from District Two of the American Advertising Federation, has been named twice to Advertising Age's list of "Top 50 Marketers" and has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation's Advertising Hall of Achievement. Dawn Hudson discusses marketing as one of the best weapons to beat consumers' growing disaffection for 30-second TV ads. Given her influence with many top sports execs, she brings years of savvy to every presentation.