Name: Julia-Feliz Sessoms
Firm: PepsiCo
Age: 32
Junk food isn’t popular with the Obama administration, so as PepsiCo’s director of global public policy and government affairs, Sessoms is working hard to foster goodwill for the company among lawmakers and to educate them about its nutrition and sustainability efforts.
In partnership with First Lady Michelle Obama’s office and the American Beverage Association, Sessoms helped roll out the “clear on calories” initiative, which commits PepsiCo to displaying calorie counts on the front of its beverages. Sessoms also spreads awareness about other projects, including the company’s goal to reduce the total calories it introduces into consumers’ diets by 1.5 trillion by 2015. On the policy front, she’s advocating for comprehensive tax reform to make PepsiCo more competitive.
This article appears in the June 2011 issue of The Washingtonian.