During his nearly 30-year career, Tony West has deftly navigated the halls of government, big business, and Silicon Valley. 

As Uber's chief legal office, West, 55, has spent the last three years cleaning up messy legal snafus after the Travis Kalanick era and ahead of the company's highly anticipated IPO. Prior to that, West headed up PepsiCo's legal department after serving as the third-highest-ranking official in the Justice Department during the Obama administration. 

West has forged his own ties to Democratic politics — he chaired the California fundraising committee for Obama's presidential bid — but he's also connected to the party in another key way: He's married to Maya Harris, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' younger sister and former campaign chairwoman.

Now, West is reportedly being considered for the role of Attorney General within the incoming Biden administration. If West is appointed, it would be the most direct line yet from Washington to Silicon Valley and back again. 

Read more:Joe Biden's Cabinet-in-waiting: Meet the people in play for a new administration, who could fill key roles like secretaries of state and defense, COVID czar, and chief of staff

Here's how West got his start and became a key figure in both the political sphere and the tech world. 

SEE ALSO: From Larry Fink to Meg Whitman, here are the business leaders who may be in line for key roles in the Biden administration

Tony West was raised in San Jose, California. His mother was a teacher and his father worked at IBM and was involved in local politics. West has two younger sisters, Pamela and Patricia.

Source: Stanford Lawyer, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

West attended Harvard University and Stanford Law School, where he was president of the "Stanford Law Review," only the third African-American person to hold the position.

Source: Stanford Lawyer

In 1993, one year after graduating from law school, West joined the Justice Department under the Clinton administration. He served as a special assistant to the deputy attorney general before becoming an assistant US attorney in the Northern District of California. By 1999, West was 
focusing on high-tech crime as California's special assistant 
attorney general.

Source: Washington Post,Stanford Lawyer

West had been interested in working in government since before law school. "I didn't go to law school wanting to be a lawyer," he told the Washington Post in 2012. "I was always more interested in public service. What I discovered is you could practice law and be a public servant."

Source: Washington Post

West has run for political office twice: first in 1998 when he ran for San Jose City Council, and again in 2000 when he ran for California State Assembly. He lost both times.

Source: Washington Post

In 2001, West left California government to become a litigation partner at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. He represented a range of clients, including John Walker Lindh, an American man who was convicted of working with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Source: Washington Post

West was also on the legal team for Marcus Williams, a wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders who sued his teammate, Bill Romanowski, in 2003 after Romanowski broke a bone in his eye socket during practice.

Source: Associated Press

In 2004, West met then-Sen. Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. When Obama decided to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, West was an early supporter, chairing the California fundraising committee and helping to raise $65 million for Obama's campaign.

Source: Stanford Lawyer, Washington Post

West remained at Morrison & Foerster until January 2009, when he rejoined the Justice Department as assistant attorney general of the civil division under Obama's administration.

Source: Washington Post, Uber

At the Justice Department, West advocated against the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriage. He also worked to reduce the number of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, according to The New York Times.

Source: The New York Times

In 2012, West was confirmed as associate attorney general, the third-ranking official at the Justice Department. During his appointment, he pursued almost $37 billion in fines against financial institutions that played a role in the financial crisis. Attorney General Eric Holder presented him with the department's highest honor when he left in 2014.

Source: Uber

West joined PepsiCo as general counsel and vice president of government affairs in 2014. At PepsiCo, West was a proponent of diversity in recruitment and hiring, as well as in the outside counsel hired to work with the company, according to the Washington Post.

Source: Washington Post

West stayed at PepsiCo until 2017 when he was recruited by Dara Khosrowshahi, who had recently been named CEO of Uber. His first day at the company, West was tasked with alerting state attorneys general about a data breach Uber had experienced a year earlier.

Source: Inc

"I knew there would be big challenges," West said at a GeekWire summit in 2018. "I knew there would be days when I opened up a closet and a skeleton would fall out."

Source: Inc

West also had to navigate allegations that Uber had stolen trade secrets from self-driving car company Waymo, a subsidiary of Google's parent company. He helped facilitate a settlement that avoided Uber having to pay $1 billion in damages.

Source: The New York Times

West has been married to Maya Harris since 1998. West and Harris, the younger sister of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, met at law school when Harris' daughter, Meena, challenged West to a game of hide-and-seek. Harris and West were friends through law school and didn't start dating until after graduation, when he lived in Washington, DC, and she lived in the Bay Area.

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Source: Stanford Lawyer

When Kamala Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016, West co-led her transition team. Maya Harris is also involved in politics and has been an instrumental figure in her sister's career: She initially served as a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and later worked as campaign chairwoman for her sister's presidential run.

Source: Marie Claire,The New York Times

Now that the Biden administration is poised to enter the White House in January, Washington insiders have been speculating about who will be appointed to key administration positions — and West is reportedly in the running for Attorney General, according to Insider.

Source: Business Insider

It's unclear if West would be interested in another government role, however. In a 2019 interview with The New York Times, he said: "It would depend on a lot of things, not the least of which is: What would I be going back for?"

Source: The New York Times

At the end of 2019, Quaker Foods' sales growth was trailing both PepsiCo's beverage and snack-focused divisions. The brand was also facing questions from analysts about its strategy, including the failed rollout of its own version of oat milk.

Now, Quaker Foods — best known to consumers for its oatmeal — is on track to end 2020 as one of the fastest-growing components of PepsiCo's empire. And its top executive says it can keep the momentum going in 2021 thanks to new products introduced this year, including protein-enhanced oatmeal and Cheeto-flavored macaroni and cheese.

"The year to date has been our best year in at least a decade," said Robbert Rietbroek, senior vice president and general manager at Quaker Foods North America.

North American sales at Quaker grew 6% on an as-reported basis for the third quarter ended September 5, on-par with growth at PepsiCo's Frito-Lay snack division and its core beverage business. Quaker sales for the second quarter, which ended in June, notably jumped 23% as consumers stocked up on goods as COVID-19 cases rose during the spring.

According to data from IRI, Quaker sales at retailers have increased 12.1% in 2020 through November 15 — more than offsetting losses at foodservice establishments. Products from mainstay oatmeal to cold cereal, a category where sales were declining prior to the spread of coronavirus, have benefited. Only Quaker's snack bars, including its Chewy granola bars, have lost ground as fewer consumers look for foods that they can take on-the-go, Rietbroek said.

The introduction of new products has been one key part of Quaker's strategy this year, even as it has broadly narrowed the products it produces to account for soaring demand at retailers. The company introduced Cheetos Mac 'n Cheese, for instance, as part of a slate of 10 new product lines it had planned for 2020 before the pandemic.

"We were very clear from the very beginning of this year when all the events unfolded that we could not stop innovating," Rietbroek said.

Quaker, which has an established pasta line under its Rice-A-Roni and Pasta Roni labels, got into the mac and cheese business after noting that 70% of Cheetos buyers also regularly consumed the dish, and that many mac and cheese eaters liked to sprinkle a crushed form of the cheese snack on their pasta.

"We are experts in pasta," Rietbroek said. "We were simply not participating in the very large mac and cheese segment." After refining a formula and designing a box that includes Cheetos' mascot, Chester Cheetah, Quaker realized that the concept was potentially a "really big idea," he added.

Other product launches during the pandemic have been more incremental. Quaker developed high-protein versions of its best-selling oatmeal flavors, such as maple brown sugar and apple cinnamon, and convinced grocers to sell them even as many were trying to reduce the number of new products on their shelves in order to keep other key items in stock.

"The retailers were super excited that [the protein improvement] was actually one of our best-selling flavors, and that's why we got strong distribution," Rietbroek said.

Families with young children are one group that has consumed more Quaker products during the pandemic. Even Quaker's standard oats have attracted new first-time buyers, including many who have bought Quaker products to include in baked goods.

In response, Quaker has introduced larger packs of oatmeal at retailers, debuted new flavors, and tailored advertising campaigns to appeal to families. The goal, Rietbroek said, is to keep as many of the new buyers coming back to Quaker as possible.

"We are really doubling down on that cohort," he said. "We believe that new trial will lead to repurchase in 2021. At least, we're hopeful that that's the case."

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NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

PepsiCo redesigned its two-liter bottles, and it relied more on 3D printing and virtual reality technology than ever before.

In the midst of the two-year redesign project, the coronavirus sent office workers home, but PepsiCo designers had the chance to use 3D printers to create prototypes in their homes. Then, product testing was completed in virtual reality, which may be where the entire industry is heading.

The new two-liter bottles with a slim area to grip have already been released in Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, and Wisconsin, with rollout to the rest of the US planned over the next few years. Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Schweppes, Crush, and other PepsiCo drink brands will eventually all be sold in this new bottle.

Here's how designers changed the iconic look while working from home. 

Two liter Pepsi bottles were first designed in 1970, and updated in the 1990s.

Changing the design of a product with 500 million units a year is not easy, and the work to change the bottle officially began in 2018, though designers had been thinking about it much earlier, VP of Innovation and Capabilities for Pepsi Beverage North America Emily Silver told Business Insider.

Changing the shape of the bottle also changes its rigidity and ability to support itself, Mauro Porcini, SVP and chief design officer at PepsiCo told Business Insider. "It's insanely difficult."

Deciding where exactly to put the grip on bottles for easiest pouring was the product of hundreds of hours of research.

A project of this scale in the past would require "a laboratory, a workshop, eventually a company that creates model," Porcini said. It would be "very expensive."

Today, designers can "design from wherever," Porcini said.

While working remotely because of the coronavirus, designers would sketch together in a virtual room.

When the pandemic showed that designers would be working remotely for a long time, they got 3D printers and Oculus virtual reality headsets.

Using at home 3D printers, designers could create molds of the design prototypes.

While VR isn't that common among design studios or in-house designers yet, Porcini says that it's where the industry is headed.

PepsiCo even did some product testing in virtual reality, seeing how consumers react to the design and how they pick it up.

Virtual reality is "not just a development tool, but in the future people will interact with brands in VR. The sooner we can understand VR and what the trends are, the sooner we'll identify opportunities," Porcini said.

The new design is mostly focused on improved ergonomics, or making it easier for consumers to pour from the bottle.

In the new design, the grip is 25% slimmer than the circumference on the old bottles, to potentially allow pouring with one hand.

The labels are also smaller, and require last plastic use.

The grip on each PepsiCo brand is specific to that brand's image, with a lighting bolt-esque design for Mountain Dew.

Source: Fast Company

2020 was a year of layoffs and shedding brands at Coca-Cola as the company instituted a new structure and dealt with fallout from the spread of coronavirus.

But PepsiCo, Coke's traditional sparring partner, has so far avoided big changes to its operations. In fact, the company has continued to hire as results soar at some of its divisions, especially those that make snacks and beverages for consumption at home.

Read more: Serial food entrepreneur Mark Ramadan secured a $340 million deal with Mondelez for chocolate brand Hu. Here's how he prepped the brand for acquisition in just over a year.

Sales to restaurants were still down as much as 40% during the company's third-quarter, which ended September 5. But CEO Ramon Laguarta told analysts during an October 1 earnings call that PepsiCo's overall sales growth accelerated during the quarter thanks to sales of chips and other snacks through its Frito-Lay division in North America. Sales at its beverage brands, including Mountain Dew and 7-Up, have also recovered as of late, Laguarta said.

"We expect our snacks and food business to remain resilient while our beverage business should sustain its momentum for the balance of the year," he said.

With that backdrop, PepsiCo has continued hiring. Its hundreds of open positions include roles in e-commerce and supply chains, two areas where the company has had to make quick changes to meet demand at retailers and adjust to less business at restaurants.

Each year, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification discloses salary data based on visa applications from US companies hiring foreign workers. The companies report the base salaries that they offer current or prospective workers as part of the visa application. Business Insider's research shows that PepsiCo and its subsidiaries recently applied for 139 H1-B visas. While many of the positions were based at either the company's headquarters in Purchase, New York, or its campus in Plano, Texas, some were based elsewhere, such as at brand or manufacturing facilities in the Midwest. 

Insider analyzed the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification's disclosure data from 2018 to 2020.

PepsiCo had about 267,000 employees at the end of 2019, with just under half in the US, according to the company's latest annual filing with the SEC.

Many salaries appeared comparable with similar positions at rivals, most notably Coca-Cola. Senior managers at Coca-Cola make $130,760 in base pay on average, according to Glassdoor. At PepsiCo, similar positions make between $131,000 and $167,000.

PepsiCo did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

From IT experts to packaging designers, here are the annual salaries for different jobs at PepsiCo:

SEE ALSO: A PepsiCo executive explains how Twitter and online restaurant menus are helping decide the company's new flavors and products

IT and Technology roles pay as much as $160,000

IT strategy planning and transform senior manager: The average salary is $160,000, according to two approved visa applications. 

PKI (public key infrastructure) engineer: The average salary is $140,000, based on two approved visa applications.

Cyber Security - Global Security Splunk Engineer: The average salary is $132,400, based on two approved visa applications.

CTO analyst: The average salary is $75,000, according to two approved visa applications. 

Development and delivery specialist: The average salary is $135,300, according to two approved visa applications. 

Development and delivery senior manager: The average salary is $152,700, according to four approved visa applications. 

R&D roles can pay up to $140,100

R&D associate manager: The average salary is $99,300, based on two approved visa applications.

R&D senior manager: The average salary is $140,100, according to two approved visa applications.

R&D associate principal scientist: The average salary is $104,700, based on two approved visa applications.

R&D packaging principal engineer: PepsiCo received approval for one role with this title with a salary of $106,300.

R&D principal engineer: The average salary is $121,467, based on three approved visa applications. The three individual salaries ranged between $120,200 and $122,100.

Insight and data roles pay as much as $190,000

Sales category senior analyst: The average salary is $98,000, according to two approved visa applications.

Shopper insights senior manager: PepsiCo received approval for one role with a salary of $131,000.

Consumer insights senior director: The average salary is $192,133, according to three approved visa applications. The individual salaries ranged from $190,000 to $196,400.

Insights senior director: The average salary is $173,400, according to two approved visa applications.

E-commerce roles can pay over $200,000

E-commerce data engineer head: The average salary is $240,000, according to two approved visa applications.

E-commerce product manager: The average salary is $200,000, according to four approved visa applications.

E-commerce data analyst: PepsiCo received approval for one role with a salary of $130,000.

E-commerce data engineer: The average salary is $128,633, according to three approved visa applications. The individual salaries ranged from $115,900 to $140,000.

E-commerce data reporting associate: The average salary is $86,250, according to four approved visa applications. The individual salaries ranged from $85,000 to $87,500.

E-commerce data warehouse associate: The average salary is $80,000, according to four approved visa applications.

E-commerce insight specialist: PepsiCo received approval for one role with a salary of $100,000.

E-commerce senior data engineer: The average salary is $183,333, according to three approved visa applications. The individual salaries ranged from $180,000 to $190,000.

E-commerce solutions engineer: The average salary is $87,200, according to two approved visa applications.

HR roles can pay as much as $136,000

HR operations analyst: The average salary is $86,100, according to two approved visa applications.

HR operations associate analyst: The average salary is $70,000, according to two approved visa applications.

HR operations senior analyst: PepsiCo received approval for one position with a salary of $104,400.

HR operations senior manager: The average salary is $136,000, according to two approved visa applications.

Marketing and design roles can pay as much as $180,000

Global director, design innovation: The average salary is $181,500, according to four approved visa applications.

Design director, structural packaging: PepsiCo received approval for one role with a salary of $186,945.

Senior designer: PepsiCo received approval for one role with a salary of $100,000.

Designer: PepsiCo received approval for one role with a salary of $75,000.

Other roles include supply chain engineers

Risk and compliance specialist: Roles with this title made between $98,470 and $136,800, according to four approved visa applications.

Identity, access management risk, and compliance senior analyst: The average salary is $106,800, based on four approved visa applications.

Supply chain engineering senior manager: The average salary is $130,000, based on four approved visa applications.

Vice president, strategy: The average salary is $334,800, according to two approved visa applications.

Strategy manager: The average salary is $125,000, according to four approved visa applications.

Strategy director: The average salary is $169,367, according to three approved visa applications. The individual salaries ranged from $165,100 to $171,500.

Communications director: The average salary is $172,400, according to two approved visa applications.

On Tuesday, soft-drink giant PepsiCo and plant-based protein purveyor Beyond Meat announced a new joint venture to "develop, produce, and market" plant-based-protein snacks and beverages. 

The companies formed The PLANeT Partnership, LLC, to execute these plans, according to a press release. The partnership aims to leverage Beyond Meat's success in the meat-alternative market with Pepsi's global branding and marketing apparatus. 

After the announcement of the partnership, Beyond Meat's stock jumped over 25%.

A spokesperson for Beyond Meat said that, in terms of what the snacks and drinks would specifically look like, "our portfolio of snack and beverage products for this partnership is still in development."

Spokespeople from both companies declined to comment on the financial terms of the deal. 

Read more: Beyond Meat's chief growth officer says he 'can't remember when we've ever said no' to creating a new menu item for a fast-food chain

Beyond Meat has partnered with other companies in the past, notably several fast-food giants.

In 2019, Beyond Meat tested plant-based pork at five restaurants in Shanghai. Last year, McDonalds announced the development of a "McPlant" plant-based menu, and worked with Beyond Meat to pilot a meatless burger at locations in Canada, Insider reported. Earlier in January, Taco Bell announced a partnership with Beyond Meat to test a plant-based protein for the fast food chain's menu. The company's meat alternatives have been featured at other fast-food restaurants, including Dunkin Donuts. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We compared 13 veggie burgers and Burger King's Impossible Burger was the only one that stood out

In a week dominated by more coronavirus vaccine updates and GameStop's insanely soaring share price, retail once again finds its way into the mainstream news cycle. 

That's right! You might've seen that Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer is set to become the CEO of Walgreens, a company that hopes to lead the way with the vaccine rollout. 

And speaking of companies led by women, this week we take a look at Ashley Merrill's efforts towards turning around DTC athleisure brand Outdoor Voices. Also, we check in on why MyPillow CEO's support of Trump has proven to be a double-edged sword.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here to get me, Danni Santana, and our Senior Editor, Gloria Dawson, in your inbox every week.

Outdoor Voices chairwoman Ashley Merrill lays out how she turned around the once-buzzy athleisure brand after its valuation dropped 64%

Ashley Merrill has been doubling as the CEO of the women's sleepwear brand, Lunya and chairwoman and acting CEO of Outdoor Voices since June.

Prior to her arrival, the athleisure brand was facing inner turmoil, including financial woes, prompting then-CEO Ty Haney to step down amid disagreements with the company's board. 

A little over six months in, Merrill's strategic overhaul has already translated into results, with Outdoor Voices turning a monthly profit for the first time last summer and increasing its customer base by 50%.

Here's how she did it. 

The MyPillow guy says God helped him beat a crack addiction to build a multimillion-dollar empire. Now his religious devotion to Trump threatens to bring it all crashing down.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is quite the character. In part, because he doesn't care what anyone — including his customers or business partners — thinks of him.

Insiders say he has striking similarities to former President Trump as a brash CEO obsessed with his own brand.

Still, supporting Trump drove "off-the-charts" sales for his business, Lindell told Insider. That success may now be in danger, however, as retailers like Kohl's and Bed Bath & Beyond continue to cut ties with the brand — a trend Lindell credits to "cancel culture."

In other MyPillow news:

• Fintech startup Affirm cuts ties with MyPillow
• MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has been permanently barred from Twitter

Elsewhere in retail:

• Walmart is doubling down on robots to fill online orders with these 3 startups
• Planet Fitness CEO Chris Rondeau is bracing for a brick-and-mortar fitness boom
• Article CEO shares how the millennial furniture company grew revenue 70% during the pandemic
• Hershey's also increased profits by 13% thanks to two new approaches to selling chocolate and mints.
• SoleSavy is on the side of sneaker purists and is happily using bots to keep hyped pairs away from resellers
• Talkspace is going public via a $1.4 billion SPAC deal, and predicts the 'second pandemic' will be a mental health crisis
  
• 7 marketplace platforms, including StockX, Faire, and virtual goods seller Genies, that experts predict could follow Poshmark to IPO

SEE ALSO: Starbucks COO Roz Brewer is leaving the coffee giant to become Walgreens CEO, and the only Black woman leading a Fortune 500 company

Join the conversation about this story »

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Aunt Jemima syrups and pancake mixes will be rebranded as Pearl Milling Company, PepsiCo said on Tuesday. 

"Though new to store shelves, Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and was the originator of the iconic self-rising pancake mix that would later become known as Aunt Jemima," the company said in a press release.

PepsiCo, which owns Quaker Oats, said in June 2020 it would change the brand name on its Aunt Jemima products, which had long been criticized for their roots in racial stereotypes.

Launched about 130 years ago, the Aunt Jemima brand was in part based on racist stereotyping and imagery, like those seen in minstrel show performances. 

"While work has been done over the years to evolve our brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realize that those changes are not enough," the company said on its updated website on Tuesday.

Aunt Jemima was one of several brands on grocery store shelves that came under scrutiny last year, as the US erupted with protests following the killing of George Floyd. The Uncle Ben's brand, owned by Mars, in September became Ben's Original. That brand also dropped its character image. 

The newly rebranded Pearl Milling products will begin hitting shelves in June, PepsiCo said. The company's products will continue to be Aunt Jemima until then, though they'll no longer use the character images. 

The company on Tuesday released pictures of its newly rebranded products, which have the familiar red-white-and-yellow coloring. They've been updated with the new brand name, along with smaller tags that say: "New name, same great taste, Aunt Jemima." 

Read more: A PepsiCo CMO lays out why the Super Bowl is the right time to relaunch Rockstar energy drinks

Along with the rebranding, PepsiCo said Pearl Milling Company planned to announce a $1 million grant program committed to empowering black girls and women. PepsiCo previously announced an about $400 million investment in black businesses and communities, the company said. 

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For the first time in five years, Pepsi is unveiling a new, permanent soda flavor.

Pepsi Mango will roll out nationwide on Monday, March 22, the soda company said Thursday. Pepsi will be launching both a zero sugar and regular version of the new drink, the company said in a press release.

The soda brand is promoting the new flavor through a national TV commercial "Take You Dancing," by singer Jason Derulo. 

"Our team has created a surprisingly perfect match with Pepsi Mango, combining the delicious taste of Pepsi cola with the flavor of a sweet, juicy mango," Todd Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing at Pepsi, said in the statement.

Pepsi said that it is expecting revenue to increase in 2021 as COVID-19 restrictions lift while vaccines roll out.  Sales of comforting food, like soda and snacks, have been strong during pandemic lockdowns. The company posted a revenue increase of 8.8% to $22.46 billion in the fourth quarter ending December 26.

Earlier this month, Pepsi launched a line of cocktail mixers called Neon Zebra, as trends continue to show more consumers drinking at home. The product's launch also signals that Pepsi is taking a different approach in appealing to consumers who are seeking alcoholic alternatives to beer and wine. 

As per its Pepsi Mango promotion, Pepsi will launch a new campaign in April to help single people find their match by turning its advertising inventory on select social media platforms into real dating ads, the company said. 

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Mountain Dew is launching a zero-sugar version of its Frost Bite drink at Walmart starting Monday, March 22. 

Mountain Dew Frost Bite Zero Sugar will be sold at over 4,300 Walmart stores nationwide, the company said in a statement. 

"This new offering leans into our steadfast commitment to consistently deliver flavor excitement and variety of choice to DEW Nation – and we are thrilled to be able to do just that with Walmart," said Vice President Marketing at Mountain Dew Nicole Portwood in the statement. 

The PepsiCo-owned brand first launched the regular Mountain Dew Forst Bite in 2020.

Comfort food such as soda, pizza, chips and other snacks, were in demand during the pandemic lockdown. Last month, Pepsi said that it is expecting revenue to increase in 2021. The company's net revenue increased 8.8% to $22.46 billion in the fourth quarter ending December 26.

Earlier this year, the company revealed a watermelon-flavored drink called Mountain Dew Major Melon that also came as a zero-sugar beverage. The new drink was Mountain Dew's first permanent flavor offered in over a decade, according to the company.

In 2020, Mountain Dew launched a margarita flavored drink that was added to Red Lobster's menu as the DEW Garita. The drink which received mixed reactions was the company's first official cocktail, Insider previously reported.

Pepsi is also rolling out  Pepsi Mango on Monday, March 22, its new permanent soda flavor. The beverage comes as a regular and a zero-sugar drink, the company announced on Thursday. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

Hi and welcome to this weekly edition of Insider Advertising, where we track the big stories in media and advertising. I'm Lucia Moses, deputy editor here.

Remember you can sign up to get this newsletter daily here.

First, senior reporter Lauren Johnson is hosting a webinar about how advertisers can navigate the death of third-party cookies on April 22 with execs from The Trade Desk, Mars, The Washington Post, and R/GA. Sign up here.

What we're following this week: 

Peacock's big test

Recess takes on PepsiCo

Playboy's NFT

Peacock's big test

Claire Atkinson took the temperature on Comcast's streaming venture Peacock, which is facing more competition for viewers and advertisers as it enters year two.

Peacock is key to NBCUniversal's effort to keep TV dollars as viewers shift online — and to Comcast's plan to grow broadband customers by offering them a freebie.

From Claire's story:

As Peacock nears its first birthday, NBCUniversal's streamer is facing fresh challenges — and doubts. 

Peacock has delivered in its first year, providing average active user guarantees to launch partners like Target, Capital One, State Farm, and Verizon.

"Peacock has definitely met or exceeded expectations," Horizon Media's co-chief investment officer David Campanelli told Insider. "They are outperforming their average active user estimates, which is good to see, and content has been high quality as expected." 

But as NBCUniversal enters one of the most transformational upfront negotiating periods in years, advertisers are ready to cite Peacock's growing competition to squeeze out better prices, narrower targeting, and more data from the ratings-free black box that is streaming.

Read the rest here: Comcast's Peacock is facing a tough test as competition heats up and advertisers seek more viewer data

Recess takes on PepsiCo

Recess got its start making CBD beverages meant to help its buyers relax. Now it's betting on another calming ingredient, with magnesium-based beverages, Alex Bitter reports.

It's a way for Recess to grow without waiting for the federal government to rule on CBD — and capitalize on the success of CPG giants like PepsiCo and Danone have had with similar products.

CBD lacks regulation at the federal level, which effectively bans CBD brands from key national retailers. 

But while magnesium is recognized as safe, the science connecting it with reducing anxiety is less solid.

Read the rest here: Recess scored a hit with its millennial pastel-hued CBD seltzer. Now its CEO is challenging PepsiCo with a move into magnesium-infused 'relaxation beverages.' 

Playboy's NFT

Playboy is joining the growing list of media organizations launching non-fungible tokens, in this case to showcase its art and photography archive and to release original works from artists, Kari McMahon reports.

If that doesn't jibe with your image of Playboy, consider Playboy's roots. "In the first issue of Playboy magazine, there's this line, 'Picasso, jazz, Nietzsche, and sex, those are the four ideal conversation topics for any sophisticated person'," said Rachel Webber, Playboy's chief brand officer and president of corporate strategy. "Right in the core of Playboy's DNA is appreciation for art and for great artists."

Other things you might not know about the more woke Playboy today: It's no longer associated with the Hefners. The magazine said in 2019 it would predominantly hire women photographers to shoot Playmates and that it would have intimacy coordinators on set.

Read the rest here: Playboy is the latest company to hop on the NFT trend. The company's chief brand officer explains why the digital asset revolution is 'an enormous business opportunity'. 

Other stories we're reading:

• Amazon surpasses 10% of US digital ad market share (WSJ)
• Roku plans to debut Roku Recommends, brand-sponsored videos to promote programming across its connected TV platform (Digiday)
• A ketchup shortage in the US is causing prices to spike — and it could get harder to find ketchup packets at restaurants (Insider)
• Snap looked at ways of circumventing Apple's new privacy rules (FT)
• We got an exclusive look at the pitch deck messaging startup Sendbird used to raise $100 million and become a unicorn (Insider)

Thanks for reading, and see you next week. And remember you can sign up for this newsletter here.

— Lucia

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Digital advertising as we know it is fundamentally changing.

Apple and Google's moves to phase out longstanding ad targeting practices and privacy laws like California's Consumer Privacy Act have advertisers scrambling for other ways to target and measure their ads.

Marketers, who are expected to spend $191 billion on digital advertising in the US this year, are revamping their data strategies since tracking and targeting ads with identifiable data like a person's location or online behavior will get harder. They're collecting first-party data like email addresses, sales data, and loyalty card programs and examining how they collect information and use that data.

Insider identified 21 advertising and marketing executives who are at the forefront of navigating these changes, whether it's finding new ways of contextually targeting or building a new first-party database.

This list, in alphabetical order by last name, is based on nominations and our reporting.

Eric Austin and Jeronimo Escudero, Senior Directors of Brand Management; and Kanishka Das, Senior Director of Analytics and Insights at Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble has been on a push to take more control of its media for years, saying it's reduced wasted ad spend by 20%. More recently, it has boosted its internal data and analytics abilities.

Austin, Das, and Escudero are behind many of those efforts, and have helped P&G collect more than 1 billion IDs, or profiles to target people with more precision.

While Escudero leads its first-party data strategy, Austin built P&G's internal programmatic platform that uses data to target ads to people based on audience segments. Das focuses on measurement.

Luiz Felipe Barros, VP of the Data Center of Excellence, Global Media and Consumer Digital Products at Anheuser-Busch InBev

Barros has helped Anheuser-Busch InBev set up a repository of first-party data that now contains information about more than 2.5 billion consumers.

Its first-party data from marketing, e-commerce, owned retail, and craft breweries helps Anheuser-Busch InBev plan and measure ad campaigns.

The company says 25% of its digital ads now use first-party data for targeting and that those ads are 28% more effective than those using third-party data.

Michael Cross, Founding Director at S4 Capital's Brightblue Consulting

Sir Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital acquired Brightblue in August 2020. Cross has pushed to incorporate first-party data like sales data and loyalty programs into how clients like HSBC and Selfridges measure the efficiency of their media spends.

He's also helped clients adopt approaches like market-mix modeling, which uses data to measure the impact of ad campaigns and predict performance.

Brightblue built a cloud-based analytics platform called React that claims to deliver insights directly to marketers in real-time, and said that the tool improved advertisers' return on ad spend by 30% compared to cookie-based measurement.

Chad Engelgau, CEO at Acxiom

Engelgau helps IPG's clients buy programmatic ads directly from publishers like Verizon and Roku and collect first-party data for ad targeting.

Since starting in March 2020, he's rolled out ad products like "Real Identity," which gives brands templates for building IDs that collect first-party data.

He's also trying to remove bias from ad measurement data, in part by broadening the definition of a household to include multiple generations of people and same-sex couples.

Arielle Garcia, Chief Privacy Officer at Universal McCann

Garcia helped launch Universal McCann's privacy practice to help clients like American Express and Coca-Cola comply with the new privacy landscape.

She set up a hub with resources like customizable privacy templates for clients, information on the latest regulations, and training courses on privacy regs for the agency's own employees.

She's also training UM's clients on how the CPRA, or the 2020 California Public Records Act, impacts advertising, and is the agency's point-person for Google and Facebook on how their changes will impact ad targeting on their platforms.

Brad Herndon, Personalization Data & Analytics Practice Lead at Accenture Interactive

Herndon helps Accenture Interactive clients set up first-party data platforms to use for ad targeting.

One way he does this is through an AI tool that targets people most likely to buy something based on data like product descriptions and reviews.

His team also built what it calls an "impact calculator" that clients use to assess their preparedness for cookies going away. In addition, he helps advertisers vet cookieless ad products like Google's Federated Learning of Cohorts (or FLoC).

Lung Huang, Head of Growth Solutions at Mars Petcare

Huang is responsible for Mars Petcare's first-party audience data strategy and works with its chief data privacy officer to handle customer data safely.

He uses anonymized data along with things like veterinary and nutrition information to target pet owners with products or services.

With pet ownership in the US skyrocketing during the pandemic, Mars Petcare used its first-party data to target people with ads on the importance of oral health among pets. The company said that it saw better clickthrough rates and engagement with the campaign than when the company used third-party data.

Eric Kirtcheff, SVP of Global Ad Operations at Essence

Kirtcheff oversees Project Voyager, Essence's initiative to help clients like Google, Target, and NBCUniversal make their digital ads more privacy-centric.

His team collects, audits and organizes clients' first-party data from across platforms, tracks changes in privacy regulation, and tests alternative ways to target people.

Recently, he guided clients through Apple's privacy changes by auditing clients' site analytics data and media partners and transitioning them to modeling-based measurement that tracks ads using aggregate data.

He also helped build Pegasus, a tool that uses AI to do contextual targeting on publishers' websites; and a dashboard that lets the agency see current and pending regulations and their impact country by country.

Shane McAndrew, US Chief Data Strategy Officer at Mindshare

McAndrew leads a team of nearly 200 data analysts that helps advertisers like Nike and Ford prepare for data privacy, identity, and the cookieless future. 

He built a multi-touch attribution tool that helps clients see which marketing channels led people to purchase, and a new way to test incrementality, which gauges people's propensity to buy products after seeing ads.

The former Merkle exec has also been helping clients collect IDs and working with adtech companies like Liveramp, Neustar, and Experian that pitch cookie alternatives to advertisers.

His team helps clients with ways to acquire first-party data, ensures that the data complies with regulations, and has consistent global processes and language for people to opt-in and consent.

Sebastian Micozzi, SVP of Digital Transformation at Bacardi

The former PepsiCo exec has built Bacardi's consumer data strategy from scratch, including setting up its first-party consumer database and getting its direct-to-consumer e-commerce operations up and running.

His team recently ran a test where it sent promotional emails and Instagram ads with drink recipes and early access to new products to 10,000 anonymized people who visited its Bombay Sapphire's distillery or website.

People in the test clicked on the ads 9% more than they did with campaigns that used third-party data for targeting. Bacardi also saw the efficiency of its ads increase 14% based on cost-per-click.

Krystal Olivieri, Global Chief Innovation Officer at GroupM

Olivieri leads a 20-person global team whose job is to get clients to use data to inform their ads.

She worked with agency Mindshare and Unilever to build GroupM's Data Ethics Compass, a tool that ensures brands are gathering data and targeting people ethically and don't single out marginalized consumers, for example. 

Her team keeps clients up to speed on initatives like Google's FLoC and Privacy Sandbox. As an example, the team created a private clean room that a client could use to share data with its agencies.

Jane Ostler, Global Head of Media and Insights at Kantar

Ostler is behind Project Moonshot, a new platform from WPP's data analytics arm Kantar that measures ad effectiveness in a privacy-compliant way.

The idea is to help brands measure their programmatic ad campaigns based on data from more than 250 publishers with the goal of tracking 95% of global digital ad spending by the end of 2021.

Ostler also leads negotiations with major digital platforms including Google, Pandora, Pinterest, Roku, Snap, Spotify, and Twitter with the goal of forging measurement agreements with these platforms, like the recent deal with YouTube that measures brand lift on the platform.

Megan Pagliuca, Chief Activation Officer, Omnicom Media Group

Pagliuca leads the testing of cookie alternatives and establishing privacy-first standards for Omnicom's clients.

This includes integrating its 2-year-old data platform Omni with Google, Facebook, and Amazon clean rooms, where brands can combine their first-party data with the platforms' data to plan and measure their ads.

She also led a beta test of "Privacy Lens," a tool to help advertisers ensure that their ads only appear in suitable environments.

Lou Paskalis, SVP of Customer Engagement and Media Investment at Bank of America

Paskalis, who's long been outspoken about data and measurement issues in marketing, has been revamping Bank of America's data governance standards to make sure it gets permission from people to market to them and is transparent about how it advertises to them.

In 2018, he assembled a 40-person team called the "Cookieless & Identity Task Force" to make sure the company stayed current with privacy regulations.

He also reviewed its ad partners to make sure they met the bank's compliance standards and struck a partnership with Safeguard Privacy, a startup that helps brands abide by regulations.

Paskalis is active in industry groups like the MMA's Global Media & Data Board, the ANA's Media Growth Council, the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Brand Council, and the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM).

Raphael Rivilla, Partner and SVP of Media, Marcus Thomas

Rivilla helped the Cleveland-based agency's clients prepare for Apple and Google's targeting changes by making sure that advertisers collect data directly from log-ins on websites and apps.

He also helped clients store data and create lookalike segments for use in targeting cookieless ads.

To prepare for Google phasing out cookies, he got clients to start tracking broader audience cohorts versus individual people. He's also helped clients adopt solutions like Nielsen's "Identity Sync" and The Trade Desk's Unified ID 2.0 initiative by ensuring that first-party data could be plugged into the agency's ad-buying platforms.

Doug Rozen, Americas CEO at Dentsu Media

Rozen has helped clients like Kroger, Discover, and LVMH prepare for a cookieless world by helping them identify the gaps they need to fill in their marketing strategies. 

He has piloted new tools to help clients deliver more personalized and relevant ads to people such as the Dentsu Marvel Contextual Intelligence Engine, an AI-driven tool that assesses websites for their context before placing automated digital ads on them.

He developed an employee training program and set up various teams to help clients, such as a task force at the agency Merkle that's responsible for first-party data and a technical team tasked with building addressable marketing products and services.

Jess Simpson, SVP of Verified Tech and Identity, Publicis Media

Simpson works across agencies and regions to help Publicis Groupe's media clients build tools that collect IDs.

She spearheads the ad holding group's offering called Publicis Media Consulting that helps clients identify gaps in their targeting strategies and fix them while maximizing their ad spending.

Simpson works directly with platforms, adtech companies, and trade organizations and committees like LiveRamp's Data Advisory Board, IAB's Tech Lab, and the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media that work on standards for cookieless ads.

Mark Sturino, VP of Data & Analytics at Good Apple

Sturino created Crisp, the media agency's data management platform that helps clients like Birchbox and Zola manage their online advertising and harder-to-track offline ad spend in one place.

In 2018, he helped clients understand how GDPR impacted the collection and use of personally identifiable information to target ads.

Since then, he's worked with clients' data security teams to safely store data and built new measurement tools to predict people's behavior based on factors like ad exposure, website visits, and purchase history.

Shyam Venugopal, SVP of Global Media and Consumer Data at PepsiCo

PepsiCo has stepped up its efforts to track everything from ads to store sales.

Under Venugopal, Pepsi built tools and anonymized data sets about shoppers to drive sales and marketing. This includes ConsumerDNA (cDNA), a first-party tool that personalizes ads to reach 125 million households across the US.

These tools have helped Pepsi quickly track and make inventory changes during the pandemic to respond to demand spikes of products like Quaker's.

Venugopal also runs tests with Pepsi's retail and advertising partners and leads ROI Engine, a system that uses machine learning to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of its ad campaigns.

For over three decades, Clarke Murphy has helped the biggest companies name their next CEO. For the last eight years, as the CEO of consultancy Russell Reynolds Associates, Murphy has advised more than 30 Fortune 500 CEO appointments and over 60 board appointments at companies that will remain unnamed due to privacy agreements. 

While Murphy's advice spans multiple industries including finance, retail, and technology, he's found that boardrooms and executive committees today are looking for leadership candidates with one particular trait in common: a high LQ — a person's willingness and ability to adapt to change. 

"CEOs are not paid to have all the answers," Murphy told Insider. "Today, it's about your ability to be agile." 

The events of 2020 forced leaders to double down on this trait, the CEO adviser explained. Many corporate executives had to move their employees to remote work in a matter of days and ensure their workers were safe. Weeks later, they had to respond to demands for racial equity amid nationwide protests with statements and pledges. The role of the CEO changed, and leaders have had to adapt. 

"What the COVID pandemic has brought on is the need for pretty rapid transformation," he said. "Leaders not only have to have emotional intelligence, they have to have LQ, the ability to learn, listen, watch, and communicate transformation." 

How to develop LQ 

To develop your own sense of LQ, Murphy recommends professionals ask their bosses for feedback, explore how they can improve work for their direct reports, and think about the problems their consumers face. 

Ask your boss where you feel you could grow personally and professionally. Having this understanding will help you focus on how to become a better leader, Murphy said. 

"You want to show that you're always learning," he said, "that you're always improving." 

The second is to explore the obstacles your direct reports encounter at work, in order to make your organization more efficient. According to Murphy, this will help you lead transformation within your company. 

Lastly, Murphy recommends that managers keep a pulse on the issues their customers care about, like reducing pollution or increasing data privacy, so they can develop innovative products.

"Successful leaders of the future will know these three things," Murphy said. "They'll know where they can grow and innovate to help their stakeholders." 

The PepsiCo case 

In addition to the transformation exhibited by corporate leaders during the pandemic, one CEO, PepsiCo's Ramon Laguarta, stands out to Murphy for his ability to be agile.

Laguarta has grappled with rapidly changing consumer habits that pose a threat to the company. People are looking for healthier food options and environmentally friendly products. That's a potential risk for a company that sells snacks and plastic bottle products. 

In response, Laguarta doubled down on a decades-long effort to cut calories in its products and engineer new, healthier ones. In the company's 2021 statement to investors, the Pepsi CEO spoke about the company's "special focus on no sugar beverages" and its continued efforts to "reduce added sugars, sodium and saturated fat in many of our products." 

He also announced the company's goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40% by 2030, and has launched new climate-friendly agricultural projects. All the while, the company's stock has been on a generally-upward trajectory. 

"Laguarta has really been able to usher in change," Murphy said. "He's an example of truly embracing transformation." 

More CEOs will be tested on their LQ as the climate crisis worsens, Murphy added. Investors and consumers will want leaders who are able to respond to environmental, social, and good governance (ESG) issues like the need for more transparency around diversity efforts as well as carbon-cutting measures.

"I think the great leaders of the future will balance operational profit with sustainable leadership," Murphy said. "They'll adapt to changing times." 

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A startup coffee brand is suing PepsiCo, claiming that the beverage giant used its trademarked name when it launched a new energy drink earlier this year.

Rise Brewing Co. claims that Pepsi violated its trademark when it gave the name "Rise" to a line of Mountain Dew energy drinks in March. The Pepsi launch came with a lot of fanfare. It brought on NBA star LeBron James, who had previously spent 17 years working with rival Coca-Cola, as the face of the new line.

In its complaint, Rise points out that Pepsi was aware of the brand. The beverage giant had "a number of conversations over the years" at industry conventions with Pepsi and Starbucks, the complaint reads. Starbucks has a distribution agreement for packaged coffee drinks with Pepsi. 

Rise CEO Grant Gyesky confirmed that his company spoke with representatives from Pepsi's innovation team twice. Those discussions gave Gyesky the impression that Pepsi was interested in a potential investment or acquisition, he told Insider.

Those conversations were encouraging for Gyesky and his team, he said."We left both meetings thinking that there was a lot of additional things to discuss," he said. But Pepsi didn't end up continuing the conversation, he said. 

Pepsi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit and the company's meetings with Rise.

The coffee brand's complaint, filed June 15 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, claims that Pepsi's new energy drink is being mistaken for Rise's coffee beverages.

A photo in the complaint shows Mountain Dew Rise beverages on a Walmart shelf designated for Rise Brewing's products, for example. The lawsuit also points to instances where customers and suppliers contacted Rise Brewing believing that the coffee startups had a relationship with Pepsi. 

Rise Brewing says that it asked Pepsi to change the energy drink's name in light of the mix-ups. According to the complaint, Pepsi responded by saying that consumers weren't likely to mix up an energy drink and a coffee beverage. Pepsi also argued that referencing the Mountain Dew brand on the Rise can made it possible to distinguish the two products — a factor that Rise Brewing's complaint says is likely to confuse consumers more.

Rise is joining a roster of smaller brands that say Pepsi plucked ideas from them. Insider reported Wednesday on two sparkling water brands that interacted with Pepsi before the company introduced its own similar product. Neither brand has taken legal action against Pepsi.

But others have. In May, Pepsi settled a lawsuit from Laboratorios Pisa, a Mexican company that makes a sports drink called Electrolit. In March, a judge in the case ordered Pepsi to delay the release of Gatorlyte, a low-sugar version of Gatorade, as the court evaluated Pisa's claims that Pepsi's product looked too much like Electrolit. 

"A lot of the innovation and advancement comes from smaller brands," Gyesky told Insider, adding that startups like his are focused on creating low-sugar, healthier versions of existing beverages.

"It's really important to protect that community because it ends up impacting what people are going to be eating and drinking in the future," he added.

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Having a good idea as a food or beverage startup is one thing. Protecting it, especially as an upstart brand, can be an even harder task.

Insider reported in June that two beverage brands claim PepsiCo lifted elements of their brands. In the courts, Pepsi has faced two lawsuits this year claiming that new products infringed on the name and appearance of smaller brands, including coffee brand Rise Brewing Co. and sports beverage Electrolit.

Experts say upstart food and beverage brands often face a difficult battle defending their products in these scenarios, especially when the world's largest food and beverage makers are on the other side of the conflict. They pointed to several ways startups protect themselves.

The easiest way is for brands to register their product with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said Alexandra Roberts, a law professor at the University of New Hampshire.

Registering requires describing "the elements that make it distinctive," Roberts said. That could be as simple as pointing to a slogan to protect with a trademark. Companies can also register more complicated concepts, such as a store layout or package design, through a "trade dress" registration.

Either way, the registration needs to be specific, she added. "There's a case I teach where somebody tried to register [all] pictures of Elvis as a trademark," Roberts said. The response from the government made one thing clear: "No, you can't have pictures of Elvis, you have to have a single picture of Elvis," she said.

But many young companies may only register basic trademarks, which can open the door to a legal battle if another company creates a product that appears similar but avoids those trademarked elements, Roberts said. 

In those cases, courts look at several factors to decide who is in the right, including which company released its product first, how similar the underlying products are, and how much time consumers are likely to spend comparing competing products in the category. 

"All of these things are getting at: How likely is it that consumers are going to be confused?" Roberts said.

In Rise's complaint against Pepsi, the suit includes a of Mountain Dew Rise beverages on a Walmart shelf designated for Rise Brewing's products, for example.

On its face, trademark law does not favor large companies or upstart ones, Roberts said. But companies in a trade dress dispute have to show that whatever they're trying to defend is something distinctive enough that consumers associate it with a brand.

That's where big food and beverage companies and their vast resources can gain an advantage over startup brands. "They're just small potatoes, and then Pepsi launches and they are nationwide, and they sell a million units, and they're doing a big advertising campaign," she said. "Then, it doesn't matter that they were second to market."

There are also broader questions founders should answer about how innovative their products are, said James Richardson, founder of consumer packaged goods consultancy Premium Growth Solutions and author of Ramping Your Brand: How to Ride the Killer CPG Growth Curve.

Founders have to develop something that the big companies can't easily replicate, such as a new manufacturing process that takes lots of investor money to develop, Richardson said.

Companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible, for instance, spent lots of money and time perfecting the extrusion process that adds texture to their plant-based meat. 

"BigCo is constantly scanning the startup world for easy-to-copy ideas," he said. "This scanning activity is mostly about new, easy-to-implement ideas for line extensions off their major trademarks, not launching new brands."

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The country is reopening and the economy is recovering from the pandemic, and while COVID-19 cases are down, prices for goods and services are on the rise. President Joe Biden's administration says this phenomenon, known as inflation, is not a cause for concern, but CEOs of major companies are warning that they'll probably keep raising prices.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly Consumer Price Index release showed that inflation in June was much higher than expected, with prices surging 0.9% over May, the highest month-over-month inflation rate since April 2008's 1.0% increase. It was fueled by big price increases for used cars, beef, and pork, and the government insists it should cool down soon.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Insider in early July that he's not worried about it. "The one thing that we are not concerned about is … inflation. We're still in transition, so we're not concerned about that. So I think anytime we can push for higher wages — and the president's been very vocal on this — that's a good thing for people."

Increasingly, though, executives are saying that price increases are here to stay. Here's what they're saying:

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said during an earnings call on July 13 that inflation "could be worse than people think."

"I think it'll be a little bit worse than what the Fed thinks," Dimon said. "I don't think it's only temporary."

In June, Insider reported that Dimon said the bank was stockpiling $500 billion in cash in anticipation of higher inflation, during which he expressed the same concerns with the nature of inflation, in that it will be more persistent than what people are saying.

JPMorgan did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink

Larry Fink, the CEO of investment management corporation BlackRock, reiterated Dimon's concerns on the nature of inflation in a CNBC interview on July 14.

"[Policymakers] are saying jobs are more important than consumerism," Fink said. "That is going to probably lead to systematically more inflation."

Biden has consistently touted job growth as a primary achievement of his administration so far, and Republican lawmakers have even cut off unemployment benefits early in an effort to incentivize people to return to work.

But Fink said that move takes the focus away from consumers, causing large-scale price increases.

"I'm hearing from every CEO that they have huge price increases, and they're passing them on across the board, here in the United States and in Europe," Fink said.

BlackRock declined Insider's request for comment.

PepsiCo CFO Hugh Johnston

To help counter the effects of inflation, some business leaders are explicitly saying they're raising prices for their goods on consumers. PepsiCo's CFO Hugh Johnston is one of them.

"Is there somewhat more inflationary pressures out there? There is," Johnston said on an earnings call on July 13. "Are we going to be pricing to deal with it? We certainly are."

The CEO of industrial supplies company Holden Lewis echoed Johnston on an earnings call the same day, saying that "based on what cost is doing," the company will have to increase prices on consumers.

Lewis said, though, that a previous price increase the company made was received "fairly well," suggesting consumers might not be discouraged by increased prices. 

Pepsi did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Hundreds of Frito-Lay workers in Topeka, Kansas have been striking over forced overtime and low pay.

Around 600 of the plant's about 750 workers voted to rejected a proposed contract and stopped working on July 5, The Wichita Eagle reported. Workers cite long hours and lack of raises as reasons for rejecting the contract. 

Monk Drapeaux-Stewart, a box drop technician, told activist nonprofit organization Labor Notes that his wages have only increased by 77 cents in his 12 years on the job. Recent contracts have included one-time bonuses while leaving wages stagnant for most workers, Labor Notes reported.

The new contract included a 2% wage increase and limits workweeks to 60 hours.

Frito-Lay said the contract, which was recommended by the union in Topeka, is a fair deal for employees in a statement on the company's website.

"Frito-Lay is committed to providing a safe and fair workplace for all of our employees. We believe our existing two-year offer addresses the concerns that have been raised at our Topeka facility," the statement reads. "That good-faith offer, which was recommended by the entire union bargaining committee, accepted the union's proposal for across-the-board wage increases and improved work rules that would reduce overtime and hours worked.  We believe the strike unnecessarily puts our employees at risk of economic hardship, and we are focused on resolving this matter as expeditiously and fairly as possible."

Read more: Subway tried to give away 1 million sandwiches to promote its new menu. Franchisees say almost nobody wanted them.

Beyond wages, workers also say they are being made to work unreasonable over time, sometimes over 80 hours per week.

Mark McCarter, who has worked at the Topeka plant for 37 years, told Vice that workers are frequently clocking in 84 hour weeks, without a single day off in months, including weekends.

Federal overtime law is determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which doesn't place any limits on how many hours workers 16 or over can work in a week. Employers have to pay time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek period, but there is no requirement for overtime pay on weekends, holidays, or days of rest. 

Do you work at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka or elsewhere? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@insider.com.

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Nelson Peltz is leaving Procter & Gamble's board of directors. Some analysts already have theories about where the activist investor might go next.

Peltz plans to depart the consumer goods maker's board later this year, Reuters reported August 9.He joined the board of P&G in 2017 after a months-long activist investor campaign where he argued that P&G had not kept up with emerging brands and needed to reinvest in its business. 

Bernstein analysts led by Bruno Monteyne, Callum Elliott, and Alexia Howard say there are multiple companies that could find themselves the target of Peltz's next activist challenge.

One of their suggestions: Unilever.

The consumer goods giant started off this year planning to sell off parts of its business, such as its tea brands.

But Peltz could advocate for a more aggressive strategy, the Bernstein analysts wrote. "Some might argue that Unilever would benefit from selling off its Foods & Refreshment division and its low growth categories," the analysts said in their August 11 note.

Peltz agitated for a similar move at PepsiCo in 2013. In that instance, the billionaire investor wanted to divide the food company into two, with one focused on beverages and the other on its snack brands under Frito-Lay.

While Peltz didn't succeed with that proposal, he could try to revive it. "This has long been mooted as a potentially game-changing deal that would create a global snacking powerhouse spanning both sweet and salty snacks," the Bernstein analysts wrote.

Changes at both PepsiCo and Mondelez over the last eight years make the prospects for a deal more promising, according to the analysts. Oreo maker Mondelez has cut the number of products it makes by more than half over that time, making its portfolio less complex and easier to integrate with another company.

At the same time, many of Pepsi's beverage brands have lost market share and become less profitable, making a spin-off more attractive.

The analysts say they have no inside knowledge of Peltz's thinking. They also acknowledge that he may be too busy with appointments to other boards to take on another position.

Aside from P&G, Peltz currently serves on the boards of fast-food chain Wendy's, foodservice company Sysco, investment manager Invesco, and Madison Square Garden in New York. 

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