Silviu Popovici

Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa PepsiCo

Last Reviewed: October 3, 2026

Executive Summary

Silviu Popovici is chief executive of PepsiCo Europe, Middle East and Africa, a role he has held since January 2025, overseeing the company’s operating units across the region, including Pakistan and PepsiCo’s own bottling operations. He came to PepsiCo in 2011 when it bought Wimm-Bill-Dann, the Russian dairy and juice company whose beverage and dairy businesses he had run, and then led PepsiCo Russia, its Russia, Ukraine and CIS business, and from 2019 to 2024 PepsiCo Europe. Earlier he worked in the Coca-Cola system in Eastern Europe. A physicist by training, he came to PepsiCo through an acquisition rather than a hire, and has stayed for 15 years.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa at PepsiCo since January 2025.
• Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo Europe, 2019 to 2024.
• President, Europe Sub-Saharan Africa, 2017 to 2019.
• President, Russia, Ukraine and CIS, 2015 to 2017.

Professional Journey

Popovici holds a master’s degree in physics and an MBA from London Business School. Early in his career he worked in sales, marketing, operations and general management at Bristol-Myers Squibb and in the Coca-Cola system, including Coca-Cola HBC, in Romania, Russia and Ukraine, according to his PepsiCo biography.

He then joined Wimm-Bill-Dann, the Russian food and beverage company, where he ran the beverages business from 2006 to 2008 and the dairy business from 2008 to 2011. When PepsiCo acquired Wimm-Bill-Dann in 2011, he became general manager of its WBD Foods Division.

At PepsiCo he was president of PepsiCo Russia from 2013 to 2015 and of Russia, Ukraine and the CIS from 2015 to 2017. In September 2017 he became president of Europe Sub-Saharan Africa and in 2019 its chief executive, and from August 2019 to December 2024 he was chief executive of PepsiCo Europe.

Since January 2025 he has been chief executive of PepsiCo Europe, Middle East and Africa, responsible for the operating units in its EMEA Foods region, including Pakistan and the company-owned bottling operations. PepsiCo’s biography says his experience spans sales, marketing, operations and general management, and that he completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He took over a region that chairman and chief executive Ramon Laguarta had himself run as CEO of Europe Sub-Saharan Africa from 2015 to 2017. PepsiCo sells food and beverages in more than 200 countries and territories through six reportable segments and employed about 306,000 people at the end of 2025, according to its annual report.

Education

London Business School

MBA

Not stated

Master’s degree, Physics