Courtney Larson

About Courtney Larson

Courtney is currently the Vice President of Portfolio Planning & Brand Commercial for PepsiCo Foods US. Prior to this role, she led all marketing for the iconic Doritos brand.A creative, strategic leader who champions prioritizing team building and loves being as disruptive as possible (ask why not), Courtney pushes her teams to champion consumers, create fans, and advocate for big ideas. One of Courtney’s favorite phrases: “In marketing, it is often said that we are all consumers but to truly create ground-breaking work, you have to admit you are not “the consumer” first and then do everything you can to get to know the consumer intimately for the brand you are leading and the work you are creating. And during this process, the magic happens, and the ideas are born.”Courtney started her PepsiCo career in Chicago, leading the highly successful repositioning of Quaker as a nutrition-forward, function-first brand by harnessing and messaging the nutritional benefits of oats and making everyday nutrition more accessible to all consumers. Courtney relocated to Dallas to lead consumer engagement for Lay’s, where she spearheaded Lay’s first brand redesign in 12 years, including a full nationwide packaging conversion, and led Lay’s “Flavor Icons”, which became the best-performing Lay’s brand program ever surpassing the iconic “Do Us a Flavor Program”. “Flavor Icons” created potato chips based off some of America’s favorite dishes from their favorite restaurants to bring a little joy to consumers during the summer 2020 COVID19 pandemic and to also help the restaurant industry. Most recently, Courtney led the Ruffles brand where she won a 2021 Clio for the brand’s first campaign in nearly a decade, Ruffles without Ridges. Courtney also expanded Ruffles’ “Chip Deal Athlete” platform signing LeBron James and Jayson Tatum to the brand, ultimately creating signature flavors for each that broke innovation records. Other notable Ruffles accomplishments include a PepsiCo Foundation partnership with James’ iPromise School, Ruffles 1st ever PE (Air Jordan 36 worn by Jayson Tatum), and championing strategic efforts to expand into the WNBA in a more culturally relevant way.Prior to PepsiCo, Courtney was a management consultant at Bain & Company and a financial associate at Deloitte. She credits these experiences for helping her stay grounded in being equal parts left and right brain to unlock the art and science of brand-building that has led to the strong growth trajectory she has been able to accomplish in all her roles.

Experience

1. Vice President - Growth Office (Portfolio Planning, Commercialization, and Transformation)

   PepsiCo

   Jan 2024 — Present · Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, US

Education

• Harvard Business School

  MBA, Business

  2010 — 2012

• Gies College of Business - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  BS, MS, Accountancy/Finance