people & places
BY ERIC L. HINTON
SHERRY NOLAN
Sherry Nolan
Pepsi Bottling Group
She never said no.
That’s what Sherry
Nolan, vice president
of diversity and workplace development for
Pepsi Bottling Group
(PBG), No. 2 on The
2007 DiversityInc
Top 50 Companies for
Diversity® list, largely
attributes as the cause
of her success. Nolan
will also tell you she
often put herself in a
“zone of uncomfort”
where she would set
herself up to succeed—
or fail—spectacularly.
“I’ve had opportunities to showcase my
work. When given the
chance, I could look at
a situation, measure
what needed to be
done, and work very
hard to build company
alignment,” says Nolan.
“I was always open to
change and I said yes
every time.”
It’s that attitude
that now has Nolan in
charge of leading PBG’s
diversity strategy,
as well as employee-engagement programs
and new-hire orientation and staffing.
She started at PBG
as a staffing manager
in 2000. She’s had her
hands in literally every
facet of the company
from IT to HR to labor.
As for her “zone
of uncomfort,” Nolan
insists it was her willingness to put herself
in potentially perilous
predicaments that’s
allowed her to thrive.
She recalls the trepidation she felt when being tabbed as director
of human resources for
PBG’s Pacific North-west business unit in
2004. She had minimal
contract-negotiation
experience before
being shipped across
the country to begin
a series of difficult
labor negotiations with
teamster unions.
“It kept me up at
night because it meant
having complete
understanding of our
objectives, building
a strategy and then
making sure you had
complete alignment
with the organization
and the best interests
of the employees in
mind,” Nolan says.
“When I look back on
that job, it was one of
my best experiences.”
DR. JOHN AGWUNOBI
Dr. John Agwunobi
Wal-Mart
His journey has
included roles as
inner-city pediatrician,
secretary of health for
the state of Florida,
and assistant secretary
for health for the
U.S. Department of
Health. Now, Dr.
John Agwunobi has a
new title and journey,
senior vice president
and president for the
Professional Services
Division for Wal-Mart (No. 41 on The
2007 DiversityInc
Top 50 companies for
Diversity list).
He will oversee
Wal-Mart’s health-and-wellness business
unit. That includes the
company’s 4,000 pharmacies and more than
3,000 vision centers.
In his previous
role with the current
Bush administration,
Agwunobi was
responsible for disease
prevention, women
and minority health
efforts, the reduction
of health disparities,
the fight against HIV/
AIDS, pandemic
influenza planning and
vaccine/preventable-disease initiatives.
Agwunobi is no
stranger to performing
under pressure. In the
wake of the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, he was called
on to lead Florida’s
response to the nation’s first intentional
anthrax attack.
“I was sworn in [as
secretary of health
for the state], and
later that evening, they
found an individual in
Palm Beach who had
anthrax,” he recalls.
“Everyone was afraid.”
His plans for Wal-Mart, in a different
way, also have life-and-death ramifications.
“Healthcare is
overly complicated,
overly complex,
overly expensive, and
inaccessible to those
who need it most,”
he says. “One of the
things I hope to do
at Wal-Mart is help
change that, whether
it’s expanding our $4
prescription program,
or our in-store clinics
where people get their
basic healthcare at
prices that they can
afford at a place that is
accessible to them.”
