PepsiCo’s Apac CEO Tan Wern-Yuen to join Hillhouse Investment

PEPSICO’S Asia-Pacific CEO and global chief commercial officer, Tan Wern-Yuen, is set to join private equity firm Hillhouse Investment in March.

The Business Times understands that the executive will lead the global consumer and retail team at Hillhouse. The firm has more than US$100 billion in assets under management.

In a LinkedIn post on Feb 21, Tan announced that he was leaving PepsiCo. He joined the food and beverage (F&B) giant in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, taking over the top Asia-Pacific position from Ram Krishnan, who had transitioned to the role of global chief commercial officer at the time.

Tan spent nearly five years as PepsiCo’s CEO for Asia-Pacific, and slightly over a year as its global chief commercial officer, his LinkedIn profile showed. Prior to PepsiCo, the Singaporean was at Walmart China as CEO and president, and McDonald’s Taiwan as managing director.

PepsiCo has yet to announce Tan’s replacement.

Asia’s F&B industry currently faces a tough macroeconomic environment, along with rising competition from Chinese brands. In South-east Asia alone, there were over 6,100 F&B outlets opened by more than 60 Chinese operators as at Dec 31, 2024, based on a report from consultancy Momentum Works.

For FY2024, PepsiCo’s Asia-Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and China segment booked a profit of US$811 million. This was higher than the region’s FY2023 profit of US$713 million.

While the sector’s operating profit rose 14 per cent – due to productivity savings, organic volume growth, favourable impairment charges, and lower commodity costs – it was partially offset by certain operating expense increases and unfavourable net pricing.

BT has reached out to Hillhouse for comments.