Krista Pilot

Senior Vice President, Global External Communications & Strategy, PepsiCo

Krista Pilot is Senior Vice President, Global External Communications & Strategy for PepsiCo, where she is responsible for senior oversight of all external communications. In this role, Krista leads global communications, working closely with Sustainability and Government Affairs teams for all functions across PepsiCo’s 300,000 associates. 

Krista has been with PepsiCo for 11 years. Prior to her current role, Krista was Corporate Affairs for PepsiCo Europe, based in Geneva, Switzerland where she oversaw internal and external communications, corporate sponsorships and social responsibility projects across the sector. She spent 4 years before that in a similar role for PepsiCo Asia Middle East & North Africa, based in Dubai.  Before her international postings, she served as Vice President, Global Internal Communications, where she led internal communications strategy and content, as well as the numerous channels for reaching PepsiCo employees around the globe. Her first role at PepsiCo was as Senior Director, Strategic Communications, with responsibility for global sustainability communications and reporting, diversity and inclusion communications and major corporate sponsorships.  

Prior to joining PepsiCo, Krista was a consultant at DKC Public Relations, where she led the corporate and sustainability practices. While at DKC, she was responsible for client engagements across a wide spectrum, including Yahoo!, Beam Global Wines & Spirits, The Climate Group and Sharecare.com. Before joining the agency, Krista served as director of community affairs for United Technologies Corporation (now Raytheon Technologies, post-merger). She was responsible for corporate responsibility (CR) at United Technologies, including creating the company’s first three CR reports and handled relationships with external groups such as non-governmental organizations, socially responsible investment firms and rating agencies. 

Her experience in public affairs began in electoral politics. She worked on the re-election campaigns of U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, and the Senate race of Delaware Attorney General Charles Oberly. 

Krista is an honors graduate of Colgate University and received her MBA from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.  She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and received a Fulbright grant to study and teach in South Korea.