General News
Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi Worked Midnight as Receptionist to Pay her Yale Degree
—And because of it, ‘respect went up’ she says
Indra Nooyi’s path to the C-suite started with overnight shifts as a college dorm receptionist—but it was her work ethic that earned her classmates’ respect.
When former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi arrived in the U.S. in the late 1970s to study graduate-level management at Yale University, she was a self-described “misfit” from India. Instead of adjusting to the rhythms of college nightlife, Nooyi was working the midnight-to-5 a.m. shift as a dormitory receptionist before heading to class each morning to pay for her degree.
“We worked our tail off because to us, we didn’t come there for the social life—we came there to study and to work hard and to move ahead,”
Nooyi recalled in a recent interview with former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, recalling the experiences of her and her fellow classmates from developing countries:
“So the goal we had was very, very clear: study, work hard, get great grades, and somehow land a job. That’s all the objective was at that time.”
Paying for an Ivy League degree wasn’t easy, either. At the time, annual tuition was equivalent to about $20,000 in today’s dollars (a far cry from the six-figure tuition costs of today), and her parents told her they couldn’t help her out financially. But eventually, that relentless work ethic inside and outside of the classroom paid off.
“When we got consulting jobs or investment banking jobs, people looked at us and said, ‘Hey, these are brainiacs,’” Nooyi said. “Respect just went up—purely because of the hard work and all the efforts we put in…People realized that this was a grueling experience for us, and they respected us for that.”
Looking back, the overnight shifts and long hours were part of a larger belief as an immigrant: success wasn’t guaranteed in America, but opportunity was.
“I remember back in the old days people would say they thought the streets might be paved with gold. Maybe they weren’t paved with gold, but they were paved with the possibility of ambition,” she said.
Today, Nooyi has over a dozen honorary degrees—including from NYU, Duke, and Yale—and sits on the board of Amazon, Honeywell, and Philips. Her net worth is estimated to be over $300 million, according to Forbes.
Becoming a leader is like practicing for the Olympics, according to former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.
After graduating from Yale in 1980 with a degree in public and private management –a program that predates the school’s MBA -Nooyi began working her way up the corporate ladder. She worked in various management and strategy positions at companies like Johnson & Johnson, Boston Consulting Group, and Motorola before eventually landing at PepsiCo in 1994. By 2001, she was named chief financial officer, and by 2006, CEO.
At the time, women led only about 2% of Fortune 500 companies—and she faced an uphill battle against those questioning if she was up for the challenge.
But she largely proved her naysayers wrong. During her tenure, which lasted until 2018, sales grew 80%, and Nooyi was named the most powerful woman in business by Fortune five years in a row.
And despite her accomplishments, Nooyi said leadership wasn’t an innate gift, but a skill developed over decades of observation, practice, and experience:
“Leadership requires you to have people wanting to follow you—wanting to follow you with passion, wanting to follow you until you fall off the edge of the earth.
“If you can evoke that kind of passion in people, then you’re a real leader.” she told Rice.
The journey climbing the ladder and becoming a respected manager is akin to training for elite competition, Nooyi added.
“It’s a lifelong process. “You have to watch, experience, practice, be put in situations where you have to follow leaders, and then you have to have people follow you.
“It’s literally like practicing for the Olympics or some sort of sport. Leaders are made through a very tough process, if you want to call it that, over many, many years.”
Nooyi’s advice for aspiring leaders is to study those already in the role—and note both their successes, failures, and the ways they react to both.
“Watch leaders. Follow them. Look at the mistakes they make and how they recover from them. Look at how they shape agendas and make people follow them wherever they go. Look at all their habits, then learn from that and see how you can become a leader too. Go for it.”
Like Nooyi, CEOs of Walmart and Nvidia got their start in humble entry-level jobs
Nooyi isn’t the only Fortune 500 CEO whose path to the corner office began with a modest paycheck. Long before leading some of the world’s largest companies, many executives worked entry-level jobs to help pay for school—experiences they now credit with shaping the way they lead.
Former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon first joined the retailer as a teenager, unloading trucks at a distribution center during summer breaks. Later, while earning his MBA at the University of Tulsa, he returned to Walmart as an assistant manager.
“My first time with Walmart was just to make money during the summertime to help pay my way through school,” McMillon said during a 2017 interview at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. “And I didn’t mean to be there very long at all.”
Instead, he kept volunteering for new opportunities, steadily climbing the ranks while gaining firsthand knowledge of the business from the ground up. He became Walmart’s CEO in 2014, and passed on the reins to John Furner earlier this year.
Similarly, Jensen Huang spent his teenage years working at Denny’s as a dishwasher and busboy. Decades later, the Nvidia CEO still points to those jobs as reminders that no work is beneath a leader.
“No task is beneath me,” Huang told Stanford students in 2024. “I used to be a dishwasher. I used to clean toilets. I cleaned a lot of toilets. I’ve cleaned more toilets than all of you combined. And some of them you just can’t unsee.”
General News
Benue Bishop Shuts Schs, Hospital, Parish In Alia’s Community Says “Church Cannot … Expose Priests, Students To Danger”
By Felix Umande
The Catholic Bishop of Gboko, Most Rev. William Avenya, has ordered the indefinite closure of four Catholic institutions in Ihugh, Benue State, and withdrawn pastoral agents following repeated attacks, arson and insecurity.
The decision, contained in a letter and decree dated October 12, takes immediate effect and affects St. Winifred Secondary School, St. Winifred Nursery and Primary School, St. Thomas Hospital, Salus Mind Care Center and St. Winifred Parish, Ihugh.
In the pastoral letter, Avenya described the withdrawal as painful but necessary to protect lives, stressing it was not motivated by anger or retaliation.
“The Church cannot, in conscience, continue to expose her Priests, Consecrated Persons, Teachers, Medical personnel, Students and Patients to danger,” he said.
The bishop cited repeated disturbances including the burning of student hostels at St. Winifred Secondary School on October 28, 2025, May 10 and 15, 2026, and October 11, 2026, recurrent burglaries at St. Winifred Parish and criminal incidents at St. Thomas Hospital. He recalled that during the reopening of the hospital on June 21, 2024, some persons displayed placards and chanted slogans demanding that Reverend Sisters leave Ihugh.
Avenya said the Diocese had engaged the host community, traditional rulers, elders and security authorities to find lasting peace, but without security guarantees.
The decree directs the withdrawal of priests, consecrated persons, catechists, pastoral workers and lay mission partners, while teaching and non-teaching staff, medical personnel and administrators are to be redeployed through appropriate diocesan offices.
It also orders safeguarding of diocesan property, transfer of parish registers and archives to the diocesan archives, and reverent removal of the Blessed Sacrament, sacred vessels and other sacred objects under supervision.
The bishop said arrangements would be made to minimise impact on students, patients and staff. Students are to be assisted to continue education in other Catholic schools in the Diocese, while patients at St. Thomas Hospital will be referred to other facilities, especially those needing urgent care. Affected staff, he said, would be treated with justice and charity.
Addressing Catholics in Ihugh, he declared:
“To our Catholic faithful in Ihugh: do not lose heart. Your Baptism is not lost with a building, nor is your faith diminished by the closing of a door.”
He appealed to community leaders, traditional rulers, youth leaders, government and security agencies to restore peace and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice, adding that return is conditional on genuine repentance, restitution and credible assurances of safety.
“This decision is a painful one, but it is not a final farewell,” he said.
Avenya called for intensified prayers for peace and designated Friday, October 23 as a day of prayer and fasting for peace and reconciliation.
Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Limited, Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari, today at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, presented the Company’s 2025 Audited Financial Statement (AFS) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.
Ojulari, who was accompanied by the Company’s Group Chief Finance Officer (CFO), Dapo Segun, presented the statement, which delivered impressive results that include ₦7.2 Trillion Profit After Tax (a 33% rise compared to ₦5.4 Trillion in 2024), ₦5.8 Trillion dividend and ₦34.5 Trillion revenue.
On 29th September, 2026, NNPC Ltd announced its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2025, following its Annual General Meeting and second Earnings Call with financial and business analysts.
The results highlight the Company’s growing earnings strength and improved operational performance, laying the foundation for future growth.
The National Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Marine Engineers and Naval Architects (NIMENA), Dr. Eferebo Sylvanus has been honoured with the Maritime Innovation and Technology Leadership Award at the 15th Democracy Heroes Award Africa.
Eferebo received the honour at the ceremony held at the weekend at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, in recognition of his professional leadership and contributions to marine engineering, naval architecture and maritime technology.
The award comes amid growing calls for Nigeria to harness its maritime resources through indigenous expertise, technological advancement and research-driven industrial development.
The Democracy Heroes Award Africa, now in its 15th edition, recognises individuals making contributions across different sectors.
Eferebo’s recognition places a spotlight on a specialised but strategically important profession whose impact extends beyond engineering into industrial development and the wider blue economy.
As Nigeria continues to explore new opportunities in maritime trade, offshore energy and shipbuilding, the challenge will be ensuring that professional recognition is matched by sustained investment in research, infrastructure, training and the practical application of homegrown technology.
With more than two decades of experience in engineering consultancy and technical leadership, Eferebo leads NIMENA, a professional body committed to advancing marine engineering through research, education, technical standards and industry collaboration.
His academic background includes a Bachelor of Technology in Marine Engineering, a master’s degree in Naval Architecture and Ship Construction, and a doctorate in Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding from Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.
He is also a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and a registered engineer with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
Beyond his professional credentials, Eferebo has built a career around developing technical solutions for Nigeria’s maritime and offshore industries.
He is the founder and chief executive officer of Somatrix Marine Limited, an engineering consultancy involved in marine consulting, ship design, marine surveys, construction management and research and development.
His leadership extends to engineering regulation and policy development, including work on maritime engineering standards and local content development.
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