On PepsiCo India boss Ahmed El Sheikh’s bucket list: Brazil during carnival

PepsiCo India President, Ahmed El Sheikh, is not a migrant by nature, but still enjoys his travels to the maximum.

Travelling solo
“The first time I travelled solo was to France and Switzerland when I was 18. It helped that my sister lived in France, so I had someone nearby in case I got lost. You should always take the opportunity to travel when you’re young because you learn so much that stays with you for the rest of your life. I saw more similarities between cultures than differences. I’m using that learning in raising my two daughters and two sons. Thanks to my transferable job, they have changed schools eight times already and now they are out of the Middle East for the first time, in Delhi. They have to learn each time how to get along with new people. I think it is building their character more than if they had stayed in one school.”


On my bucket list
“Brazil during the carnival. But tickets are so expensive; I’ll have to save up.”

Making a friend for life
“I met my future brother-in-law on a trip and he became a friend and mentor. He worked in Proctor & Gamble and was in a position to give me great career advice on how to succeed in a multinational corporation.”

A journey cut short
“All my journeys are cut short in a sense, because I have this need to get back home. I’m not a migrant by nature. People from the East go for higher education to the West and now we go to work in the East because that is where the action is. But our goal is always to eventually come back home.”

A place that I would like to go back to again
“Langkawi, Malaysia. It is an island in the middle of nowhere. You can totally relax, doing nothing but walking barefoot in the sand. I have been there only once, but look forward to going again.”