Mr. Donald M. Kendall

(Inducted in 1994)

Donald M. Kendall is the co-founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Pepsi Co. Inc. and continues to provide the company with counsel as well as serve as the company's ambassador throughout the world. A native of Sequim, Wash., Kendall's education at Western Kentucky State College was interrupted by World War II, when he left college to become a Navy pilot. After the Navy, Kendall joined the Pepsi-Cola Co as a fountain syrup sales representative. His rise in the company was meteoric. He advanced from sales to managing a sales crew, to managing sales for all company operated plants. In 1951, he became assistant national sales manager, and a year later was promoted to vice president in charge of national sales. In 1956, he became vice president in charge of marketing for the entire company. In 1957, Kendall became president of Pepsi Cola's overseas operations. Under his leadership, the number of countries in which Pepsi-Cola was available more than doubled and sales tripled.

Kendall became president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola in 1963. Two years later he engineered the merger that brought Pepsi-Cola together with Frito-Lay, the nation's leading snack food marketer, to create Pepsi Co and was named the company's president and CEO. In 1971, he was elected chairman and CEO, a position he held until his retirement in May, 1986. Under Kendall's leadership, PepsiCo became one of the 25 largest corporations in the U.S., a leading bottler of soft drinks, the biggest salty snack producer and the largest operator and franchisor of restaurants in the world. Kendall has received numerous honors for his achievements, including: George F. Kennan Award for outstanding contribution to improving U.S. Soviet relations (1989); National Business Hall of Fame (1987); the first Equal Justice Award from the NAACP. Legal Defense and Educational Fund (1986), and several honorary doctoral degrees. He is married to the former Baroness Ruedt Von Collenberg and living in Greenwich, Conn.