Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo, USA, Indra Nooyi speaks during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday Jan. 29, 2009. Business and world leaders meet for a second day of work and will continue to discuss ways of overcoming the global financial and economic crisis. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
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Arguably the most famous graduate of Yale School of Management, Indra Nooyi, has become the school’s biggest alumni donor, with a gift to endow the deanship at the school.

The chair and chief executive of PepsiCo has made the donation, for an undisclosed sum, in recognition of what she calls “the fundamental understanding that leadership requires an expansive worldview and a deep appreciation of the many points of intersection between business and society”. Ms Nooyi graduated from Yale in 1980.

Edward Snyder, the inaugural Indra Nooyi dean, says the fact that Ms Nooyi, was born outside the US is a positive signal for a school that has aspirations to be one of the world’s most global management institutions. Ms Nooyi is also one of the few women to give a substantial donation to a business school.

This is not the first time that the PepsiCo boss has donated to the school — indeed a classroom is already named after her, following a previous substantial gift. She has also been a member of the Yale Corporation, the governing board and policymaking body for the university.

Prof Snyder, who joined Yale as dean in 2011, was recently appointed to a second five-year term at the school. Since 2012, he has spearheaded the formation of the Global Network for Advanced Management, which comprises 27 top business schools from around the world. These include big-brand schools such as Insead, Berkeley Haas, Fudan and HEC Paris as well as schools in emerging markets in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

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