Cara Keating

Session Description:

Thinking beyond boundaries: lifehacks on making decisions and leading in complex and ambiguous times!

Charting the future in today’s business environment requires leaders to think strategically like never before. It requires analyzing opportunities and problems from a broad perspective, continually assessing your organization and industry, and applying your insights to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Our guest speaker, Cara Keating, President, PepsiCo Foods Canada, will share her experiences and tips on several key leadership success factors, including:

• making effective decisions in times of uncertainty
• managing complexity
• integration of diverse perspectives
• enterprise thinking

Personal Information:

Cara is the President of PepsiCo Foods Canada, and was appointed to this role on July 12, 2019. Cara has been with PepsiCo for 15 years and has a wealth critical experiences in various geographies and in account management, customer insights, field and customer leadership roles.

Since joining PepsiCo in 2004, Cara’s ability to consistently deliver results has led to progressively senior roles in customer development and field leadership across Canada. Cara began her PepsiCo career in the Western Canada market, before moving to Toronto in 2010 for the role of Director of Business Development, Small Format leading the national C&G business. In 2014, Cara was promoted to Senior Director of Sales Strategy, Planning and Insights. Her passionate and visible leadership in this role has influenced many new ways of working cross functionally, and in designing more effective marketing and in store programs that work for us, our shoppers and our customers. After her promotion to Ontario Area Vice President in 2015, Cara led the team to back to back Pingel Award wins in 2015 and 2016 for the top-performing Frito Lay Canada area. In 2016 Cara was promoted to Vice President – Customer Development at PepsiCo Foods Canada, where she led our national sales team to deliver against our promise of providing world-class service to our customers and innovative programs to our consumers.

Cara is a talented people leader and passionate supporter of PepsiCo’s diversity and engagement agenda. For four years she led the Women’s Inclusion Network (WIN) - an employee network focused on educating and empowering women to make a difference for themselves, the business and the community. Her leadership and efforts to expand WIN across PepsiCo Canada were recognized with the prestigious PepsiCo Global Harvey Russell award for her contributions to diversity and women’s development across PepsiCo. Cara has also helped to position PepsiCo Canada as an industry leader in advancing women through her involvement in the annual Forward Together conference. As a member of the Forward Together Board of Directors, Cara is a valued contributor to this industry-leading annual professional development event for 200+ women. In recognition of these efforts, Cara was honoured with a 2017 Star Women in Grocery award from Canadian Grocer Magazine.

In Cara’s own words, “one of the most important things I’ve learned at PepsiCo is to keep growing. PepsiCo is phenomenal at developing and challenging its people and giving them opportunities to grow, both personally and professionally. I’m proud to play a role in building the confidence and capabilities of our people and leading PepsiCo Foods Canada into its next chapter of success.”

Prior to PepsiCo, Cara worked at Procter & Gamble for four years in Account Management. Cara holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business from the University of Saskatchewan. She is an avid traveler and enjoys experiencing new destinations, cuisines and adventures. She lives in Toronto with her partner, Eddie.