The global population rose to 8 billion in 2022, and as the world faces continuous challenges like hunger, poverty and inequitable access to natural and created resources, how can the planet and its people make sure they’re up to the moment?
Continuing Week Four’s Chautauqua Lecture Series theme, “Eight Billion and Counting: The Future of Humankind in a Crowded World,” C.D. Glin, president of the PepsiCo Foundation and PepsiCo’s global head of social impact, will speak at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater. He’ll discuss global needs and the foundation’s efforts to ensure equal access to nutritious food, safe drinking water and monitoring the economic effects of climate actions.
Glin is a graduate of Howard University and the University of Oxford, and the Leadership for Senior Executives Program at Harvard Business School. He spearheads PepsiCo’s strategic direction and leads the company’s engagement centering around its three core pillars: striving to ensure equal access to food, safe water and economic freedom.
“In recent years, we’ve seen significant events including the pandemic, conflict and natural disasters which have created an abundance of need across the globe,” Roberto Azevedo, PepsiCo’s executive vice president and director of corporate affairs, said when Glin was appointed president in 2022. “Through C.D.’s leadership, the PepsiCo Foundation has helped the company meet these moments through a focus on impacting communities, engaging employees and driving corporate purpose and responsibility.”
Throughout his career, Glin has championed that passion for making connections with others and giving back to communities.
Before PepsiCo, Glin was president and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation, associate director of the Rockefeller Foundation and vice president for business development at PYXERA Global. He began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa, during Nelson Mandela’s presidency.
Glin also served in President Barack Obama’s administration as the first director of intergovernmental affairs and global partnerships for the Peace Corps. He was honored as a Champion of Change in Civic Engagement and International Service by the White House.
In a 2023 interview with the executive membership initiative NationSwell, Glin discussed PepsiCo’s efforts to combat hunger around the globe, and how he stays committed to the foundation’s core values.
“The world is facing a dire hunger crisis right now, and it’s been exacerbated by the three C’s: COVID, climate change and conflict shocks around the world,” he said then.
The company brings everything it does together under a “strategic umbrella” called PepsiCo Positive, which he said has a goal of placing “sustainability and human capital at the center of how we’re going to create value and inspire positive change for people and the planet.”
His role at PepsiCo has become his “dream job,” and he feels humbled to use his platform to spark action and make a difference in lives and in communities.
“My career has been focused on service to others, whether it’s in my time as a Peace Corps volunteer, my tenure in the Obama administration or my time now where I have the opportunity to serve communities around the world as a private sector social impact leader,” he told NationSwell. “But at my core, I’m moved by the desire to use these platforms to empower and encourage others to do more, to bring about transformational change for themselves, their families, their communities and ultimately their countries.”
