President Clinton Presents Indra Nooyi With Asia Game Changer of the Year Award

thank you very much thank you Josette and thank you for taking on the Asia Society I'd like to begin if I might just by thanking all of you for being here at a time when all over the world nations and within nations ethnic racial racial and religious groups seem to be withdrawing from each other I still bet on you and the idea that our differences make life more interesting but our common humanity matters more that we have a shared future and we have to build it and I'm very grateful for the example of the age of society and in some form or fashion the United States whether we know it or not needs a trans-pacific partnership with the people of Asia to build a future [Music] I'm very grateful to be here on behalf of Indra Nooyi she is everything you saw in the film but she has also been a wonderful friend Hilary and me and she is our neighbor the Pepsi headquarters about ten minutes from our home and if you've never been there she probably still has enough pull even a week out of the job to get you a tour through the sculpture garden which is the most impressive private sculpture garden I believe in the world and a big part of their legacy one day I was there showing it to my brother and I looked like not very good I was in old clothes and I looked like I would should have been there to clean the place or paint the roof or something and she came out and said hello and took me in and let my brother by all the PEFC stuff in the store and I just kept thinking you know yes she's a female president of a fortune 500 company yes she's a first Asian woman to do something like this yes all this stuff but she's a real live human being and a good human being and a good person I love listening to her stories about trying to reconcile family and work in having a motor that still thought she ought to be a nice indian girl even though she was a very big deal in the business world in America and around the world but I want to say one thing that was not in the film after I had my heart surgery 14 years ago and the American Heart Association asked me to do something for them I said okay but I don't want to make public service ads I mean I'll do that if you want but what I really want us to do is something that might actually save somebody's life and children in the United States at that time we're getting up to who were obese we're getting up to 45 percent of their calories every day from heavily sugared soft drinks so I went to Indra and to the other big coca-cola Cadbury Schweppes and I said look I know you don't want to kill these kids let's figure out a way to make money in a different way and wasn't so many years ago that if people would have looked at me like I was crazy but you saw from the way she's diversified the products being sold by Pepsi Cola they imagined that it would be a good thing if all these kids that were otherwise going to be obese sugared up and have shortened lives turned out to be healthy long lived and customers for decades and so they agreed with no law no soda tax no nothing they agreed to get rid of full sugared soft drinks to reduce the size of even there are fruit drinks that had significant amounts of sugar and in total to reduce not by 90 percent 90 percent the total number of calories consumed by children and schools in America through soft drinks and now wait here's the other reason you should be given or this you can only make change if you make it for other people breaking a glass ceiling is a great deal but that's what you achieve you have to change things for other people to completely independent studies have now documented that they met the 90 percent target and that's an astonishing thing with no regulation no taxes no nothing it wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for her and they are now trying to reduce the overall caloric consumption of the entire American populace by 20% within the next few years so yes she's my friend and I'd be here under any circumstances but she's the real deal and given the way the world often seems to be going to hell in a handbasket I suspect your one-week retirement will be more short-lived than you wish ladies Elliman Indra Nooyi [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Thank You mr. president as if this award wasn't enough of an honor your presence here tonight makes it that much more special thank you so much for your kind words your big heart and everything you've done on behalf of our country here and the people of Asia thank you [Applause] what an amazing evening it is so far thank you Tom Josette and everyone at the Asia Society for this award and organizing this dinner every year and thank you all for coming out here to celebrate this remarkable indispensable organization I am deeply honored to be a 2018 game-changer of the year more than anything else I'm humbled to be included with such an extraordinary group the Fukushima first responders the white helmets of Syria the cave dive was the rescue those little children in Thailand these are the real superheroes so please indulge me for a moment and give all the other game-changer [Applause] to be honest I feel a bit uncomfortable someone like an impostor being mentioned in the same breath some of this evenings honorees I have not saved anyone's life I'm not a world-class surgeon I'm not a champion long-distance runner for 12 years I did the same thing as many of you I ran a company PepsiCo I tried to run it with courage and conviction I tried to run it with humanity and heart with her eye towards purpose as well as profit because I believed that business had to be more than creating value for shareholders it had to be about creating value for society as a whole I firmly believe that companies can be a positive force for change in the world and that's why I ran the company the champions women the champions sustainability the champions health and wellness a company that lifts our those up and builds bridges between people and cultures a company that does well by being good those are the values that have driven me throughout my career from my first job in India to the last week when I stepped down as CEO of PepsiCo they also happen to be the values that are central to the Asia Society in the words of your founder john d rockefeller the third this organization is about building and I quote mutual understanding and respect based not on mere tolerances of our differences but on our awareness that the world is richer for those differences and we as individuals are richer in our humanity for more than six decades this organization has been building those ties of mutual understanding and respect and enriching our humanity whether it's through the Asia Society Policy Institute the Arts and Museum Network the center for global education the Asia 21 Young Leaders program or these game-changer awards recognizing people who have had a transformative impact in Asia to paraphrase a line attributed to the Buddha you are the single candle that lights a thousand candles you are the single candle that lights a thousand candles igniting curiosity and passion for Asian culture in countless people and looking out at everyone here tonight knowing that there are so many of us who share the values of this amazing organization I have no doubt that your camel will continue to light the world and the best days for Asia society and all of us who love and appreciate Asian cultures lie ahead thank you very much for being here tonight mr. president

Channel: Asia Society

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Keywords: asia game changers, 2018, video, bill clinton, indra nooyi

Id: cU-y5m_dbGg

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 10 2018