Dr Mehmood Khan

Welcome by the Public Orator

Vice- Chancellor,

Dr Mehmood Khan, who has recently been honoured in the Congressional Record of the United States with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, has been an outstanding and innovative leader in business and as a Vice-President of PepsiCo, and the University of Liverpool is delighted to celebrate his contributions with the award of an honorary degree today.

Mehmood Khan grew up in Rochdale, and at school was always interested in the sciences, where he was greatly encouraged by an outstanding biology teacher. Through his parents had not been to university, he then moved on to the University of Liverpool, where his brothers and a niece would subsequently follow him. He studied here for his medical degrees, spending ten years in the city, which included a period as a house officer at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

After Dr Khan obtained his membership of the Royal College of Physicians, Professor Richard Edwards, with whom he had worked closely at the University, encouraged him to consider specialising in endocrinology and working at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The stay in Minnesota that ensured saw him achieve great distinction both with his work in endocrinology (dealing especially with diabetes) but also in nutrition: in the University of Minnesota he was a Faculty member of the Department of Food Sciences in the College of Agriculture and a member of the Facility of Medicine. This combination of expertise in endocrinology and food science would serve him well as his career progressed.

In 2003, Dr Khan moved into the world of business when he joined Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, a leading Japanese Company. It would not be long before Takeda appointed him as President of Global Research and Development. Dr Khan talks of this period as an exciting opportunity to work for a Japanese company and thinks as a global citizen about what could be done to improve world health.

A meeting in the Harvard Club in Boston with two members of the Board and PepsiCo then brought what felt like a very unexpected opportunity to work in 2008 with PepsiCo as Chief Scientific Officer. But this was a very exciting time at PepsiCo, where Indra Nooyi, who had been CEO since 2001, was beginning the process of refocusing the company from its historic emphasis on sugary beverages and foods like potato crisps, so that its repositioned brands now included categories like ‘Good for You’ and ‘Better for You’. In fact, Mehmood Khan’s appointment signalled a real commitment on the part of PepsiCo to move in exciting new directions.

A major problem in world health in recent years has been the effects of obesity. Through there had been attempts to address the issues through drugs, the medical profession has also realised that considerations of lifestyle have a role to play, and one that is moreover preventative rather than responsive. At the same time, the issue of unstainable farming methods and overuse of diminishing water supply in a context of rising world population have also come to be concerns more and more for companies like PepsiCo.

Since Mehmood Khan’s appointment, PepsiCo has done much revolutionary work to promote healthier living and more environmentally sustainable modes of business. This pioneering work has taken various forms. TO give a couple of examples, the water footprint of the company, the amount of water used in its production process, has been dramatically reduced by over 25%, an astonishing statistic for a company known above all for its emblematic range of drinks. There has been similarly innovative use of natural but non-nutritive sweeteners such as stevia, from a South America shrub, which is used for instance in the Trop50 lower-calorie version of the Tropicana juice drinks, as a means of both reducing the calorific value of beverages whilst at the same time meeting the concerns of customers who want to avoid artificial sweeteners. Backed by PepsiCo’s strong commitment to support and fund R and D which is not just about developing products, but making discoveries for the next generation, Dr Khan is always looking for the next ingredient which can make a difference.

Likewise, Dr Khan has presided over a process of greater internationalisation of PepsiCo’s team, as he seeks to draw in the strongest tales from around the world. This international dimension is also reflected in measures which he has taken globally to ensure that PepsiCo is not just a responsible participant in the marketplace, but that it can make contributions going far beyond that. Thus in the United States, a distinctive and important scheme has been the programme of Summer Meals which Dr Khan has developed. These address the surprisingly but very real problem of hunger for children from low-income families for whom the school meal is the main meal of the day. In the summer vacation period, some of these children are poorly nourished when taken out of the school environment, so PepsiCo works with local agencies to provide a range of foods which meet or surpass USDA guidelines as a means of alleviating the seasonal effects of this serious but underreported problem. And in India, the development of the Lehar Iron Chusti snack brand as a low-cost product has enabled Dr Khan to lead the company’s effort in combating the effects of iron deficiencies in adolescent girls who are often missing out on key micronutrients. Similarly, Dr Khan has had the vision to see that the nutritional benefits of oats can be developed not just in foods but in drinks, as PepsiCo has seen the need to look at plant-based proteins in a context where animal proteins are proving increasingly burdensome on world agriculture. His continuing work with PepsiCo has shown decisively how large multinational corporations can, if they choose to, think and act responsibly, addressing central problems of the 21^st century such as sustainability and hunger, while at the same time offering a vision for successful commercial activity.

Vice-Chancellor, in the name of the Council and the Senate of this University, I present to you for admission to the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa, in this University, Mehmood Khan.