Microsoft adds PepsiCo CFO Hugh Johnston to its board of directors

Microsoft today announced that they are appointing Hugh Johnston, vice chairman and CFO of PepsiCo, to its board of directors and to the board’s audit committee. Adding Johnston increases Microsoft’s board to 13 members. Johnston is a 30-year veteran at Pepsico and he is an extremely talented executive with deep finance and general management experience.

About Hugh Johnston,

Johnston, 56, has served as the chief financial officer since 2010 and became vice chairman in 2015. In his career at PepsiCo, he has served as executive vice president of global operations, president of Pepsi-Cola North America, senior vice president of transformation, and senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions. Johnston has previously served as a director and audit committee chair for Twitter Inc. and AOL Inc. He currently serves as a director for the Peterson Institute for International Economics, on the University of Chicago’s Booth School CFO Advisory Board, and on Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management Advisory council.

“Hugh is an accomplished financial and business leader who brings a depth of experience from his successful career at PepsiCo where he has oversight of finance, IT, e-commerce and the company’s digital transformation,” said John W. Thompson, independent Microsoft board chairman. “He is a great addition to Microsoft’s board of directors, and we look forward to working with him.”

Another big change Microsoft announced is that G. Mason Morfit, president and chief investment officer of ValueAct Capital, will not seek re-election to the board. “Mason has been a valuable adviser at an important time in Microsoft’s transformation, and we are grateful for his contributions,” Thompson added.

Microsoft yesterday also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.42 per share, reflecting a 3 cent or 7.6 percent increase over the previous quarter’s dividend. The dividend is payable Dec. 14, 2017 to shareholders and the ex-dividend date will be Nov. 15, 2017.