PROFESSOR EMERITUS ANDRALL E. PEARSON DEAD AT 80
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| Professor Emeritus Andrall E. Pearson |
BOSTON - Andrall (Andy) E. Pearson, an outstanding executive and business leader who was a member of the Harvard Business School faculty from 1985 to 1993, died unexpectedly of a heart attack at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 11. He was 80.
In a number of significant positions over 40 years, Pearson served as a partner at McKinsey & Co., president of PepsiCo, a general partner of the private equity firm of Clayton, Dubilier and Rice, and CEO and founding chairman of YUM Brands. He was scheduled to retire from the YUM board in May 2006.
Born in Chicago, on June 3, 1925, Pearson – along with his identical twin brother, Richard -- earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. At the end of World War II, they both enlisted in the U.S. Navy for a three - year stint before attending Harvard Business School. Earning their MBAs in 1947, the Pearsons met the Pope sisters, also identical twins, and subsequently married in a double ceremony in 1951. Both couples celebrated their fifty-fifth wedding anniversary together on March 2.
After a short stay at Standard Brands, Andy Pearson joined the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Co. He focused on consumer product companies and, with his colleague Marvin Bower, he was “a major contributing force in the dramatic growth of the practice,” according to Ron Daniel, former McKinsey & Co. managing partner. While there, Pearson was recruited as chief operating officer of PepsiCo and subsequently became the company’s president. At PepsiCo, he focused on creating a winning culture and recruiting top talent at all levels of the company. He was at the vanguard of the "cola wars" and instrumental in global expansion, as revenues grew from $1 billion to $8 billion. “Andy will forever be remembered among the iconic, gifted leaders that shaped PepsiCo into a successful and respected global enterprise,” said Steve Reinemund, PepsiCo chairman and CEO.
His disciplined management routines were well known. In 1980, he was named by Fortune magazine as one of the "ten toughest bosses.” Years later, friend and fellow YUM board member Ken Langone used to tease Pearson about the article, asking, "Andy, where is this ‘tough boss’ stuff? Ever since we have worked together, I see you as a cream puff." In fact, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase said that’s what made Pearson special. “What separated Andy from many other great leaders is that he had a big heart, not just a big brain. It’s a rare quality to have both passion and a sense of humor, along with brilliance, and Andy set the standard.”
Other corporate luminaries admired Andy’s business acumen. Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, called Pearson “a decisive business leader who loved business and was a great practitioner as well as a great teacher.” Larry Bossidy, former chairman of Honeywell International, agreed. “Andy was energetic, insightful, stayed contemporary, and was delightful to be around,” he said.
After PepsiCo, Pearson became a tenured professor at Harvard Business School, where he was named the MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration. At HBS, he focused on general management issues and practices. "Andy brought an extraordinary amount of experience to the classroom," said Dean Jay Light. "He had an enormous and longstanding impact on students and faculty alike." He authored a number of articles in the Harvard Business Review, including "Muscle-build the Organization" and "Corporate Redemption and the Seven Deadly Sins," which are still widely distributed today. He left HBS to become a general partner in the private equity firm of Clayton, Dubilier and Rice from 1993 to 1997. There he was involved in numerous buyouts, including Lexmark, Kinko's, and Alliant Food Service.
While at the firm, he also worked with PepsiCo to assist in the spin-off of the restaurant division, then made up of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. PepsiCo’s chairman, Roger Enrico, asked Pearson to serve as chairman of the board and CEO of this venture, now in its eighth year as a public company. Since the spin-off, the company has expanded globally to comprise over 34,000 restaurants and has continuously achieved double-digit earnings-per-share growth. Pearson stepped down as chairman and CEO in 2000, although he continued to serve on the board. He also mentored YUM chairman and CEO David Novak. “Andy’s incredible knowledge, brilliant insights, and standard for excellence put YUM on the right path and helped us stay on it,” Novak commented. “He was truly one of a kind -- a great partner, coach, and close friend.”
Pearson served on numerous public and nonprofit boards, including Citigroup, the May Company, TWA, YUM Brands, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York University Medical Center. "Andy separated the minutiae from the real issues faster than anyone I've ever known, " said Sandy Weill, chairman of Citigroup, on whose board Pearson served from the inception of Commercial Credit until he retired in 2005. He was recently named one of the nation's “most significant directors” by the Outstanding Directors Organization.
Beyond the boardroom, Pearson was both an avid golfer and an accomplished collector of Pre-Columbian art, an avocation he refined over the past 25 years. In 2002, the collection was exhibited at the Art Institute in Chicago. In the fall of 2004, it was featured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in an exhibition called “Heritage of Power: Ancient Sculpture From Western Mexico.” Since that time, the Pearson family has made significant donations of their collection to the museum. “This is a huge addition to the Metropolitan, since we had nothing like it in our portfolio, and the Pearsons had a very skilled eye in the pieces they collected,” said John Rosenwald, vice chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Even after the Pearsons made this significant donation, Andy continued to make strategic acquisitions to add to it. He was very public minded and wanted to ensure that future generations from around the world would enjoy this important collection as much as he did.”
Pearson resided in Palm Beach and Santa Barbara, California, where he recently purchased a home near his brother and sister-in-law—an opportunity to reunite after living on opposite coasts for 50 years. He had previously resided for many years in Bronxville, New York, where he served as a member of the board of Lawrence Hospital and as an elder of the Reformed Church.
He is survived by his wife of fifty-five years, Joanne; his brother, Richard, and sister-in-law, Jany, of Santa Barbara; his daughter and son-in-law, Jill and Alan Rappaport of Bronxville; and two grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at the Reformed Church (180 Pondfield Road) in Bronxville on Saturday, March 18, at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Cardiovascular Research Fund at the NYU Medical Center, 560 First Ave & 32nd Street, New York, NY 10016.