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More management changes on menu
PURCHASE, N.Y. - Seasoned business-management executive Andrall E. Pearson, on whose watch PepsiCo acquired the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains, was entrusted with the responsibility of leading them back into independence from the diversified conglomerate.
At his side will be David C. Novak, the young president and chief executive of Pizza Hut and KFC, who will add the Taco Bell chain and PepsiCo's vast international restaurant empire to his auspices when the three brands are spun off as a single publicly traded company later this year.
Pearson, 72, is a former PepsiCo president who most recently had been a partner in the leveraged-buyout firm of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, New York. He will be the front man in regard to Wall Street as chairman and chief executive of the as-yet-unnamed restaurant company, which will include some 30,000 restaurants generating an estimated $10 billion in revenues. Novak, 44, will be vice chairman and president.
"Novak's relatively young, and I'm sure they named Andy Pearson as a strong personality to go before the financial community," said Randall Hiatt, president of the restaurant-consulting firm Fessel International, Irvine, Calif. "The new restaurant company really has to jump out and get some credibility very quickly."
The appointments follow the loss of two of PepsiCo's top executives, John Antioco and James O'Neal, the heads of PepsiCo's Taco Bell and international restaurant operations, respectively, who left their posts earlier this month. Antioco resigned to take over the Blockbuster Entertainment video-rental division of Viacom Inc. as chairman and chief executive, and three days later PepsiCo -- true to its tradition of shuffling executives within its divisions -- said that O'Neal would leave the helm of PepsiCo Restaurants International to become president and chief executive of Frito-Lay International, PepsiCo's overseas snack-foods business.
"The departure of John Antioco and Jim O'Neal leaves David Novak with quite a challenge to get his arms around both Taco Bell and international," said analyst Marc Cohen of Godman Sachs, New York. "Andy Pearson...