Spirits company Diageo has named Indian American Sally Grimes as Chief Executive Officer, North America, effective Oct. 1, the global beverage giant that makes Guinness and Johnnie Walker, announced earlier this week. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she has “over 25 years’ experience in the food and beverage sector,” and “is a proven leader in consumer goods and is well-known as a world-class innovator and brand builder,” Diageo said in the Sept. 21 announcement. She will report to Debra Crew, chief executive, and will join the Diageo Executive Committee.

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Grimes was most recently the chief executive officer at Clif Bar & Company, the leading maker of organic energy bars in North America. In that role, she “successfully led the development of a 10-year strategic growth plan, designed the company’s purpose, created a clear portfolio strategy, and ultimately completed the successful sale of the company to Mondelez International,” the announcement said.

She grew up in Bourbonnais, about an hour south of Chicago, according to a 2014 profile in the Chicago Tribune. Her parents emigrated from India in the 1960s to pursue their education. Grimes’ first name is Shobana, and her middle name, Sally, “was picked to honor her mother’s first American friend after she arrived in the U.S.,” the Tribune report said. Her mother was a dietitian focused on the science of food, while her father was an administrator at a veterans hospital. Grimes told the Tribune that she “credits her parents for her empathy, remembering their open-door way of helping people, something she associates with the immigrant culture.”

Highlights of Sally’s industry recognition include Fast Company’s “Top 100 Most Creative People in Business” and Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women to Watch.”

In an interview with the Chicago Booth School of Business, she said her interest in all things food goes back as far as she can remember. ”Growing up, I remember at every meal always talking about what we were going to have for the next meal,” she said. She had entrepreneurial aspirations focused more on creativity than culinary arts, she told her alma mater, adding that her first job was selling homemade greeting cards door-to-door. “My father was supportive, but also very traditional and conservative, and as I got older, he said, ‘I’m not sure art should be your career path of choice.’”

Before joining Clif, she was group president of the Prepared Foods segment of Tyson Foods, where she ran a $10 billion, 25,000-person organization, reporting to the Global CEO. Her early career began in banking, followed by multiple positions within large consumer goods companies.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in finance from Valparaiso University, Indiana, she spent a few years at First Citizens Bank before heading to the University of Chicago for an MBA. Her first job after business school was at Kraft, where she started as an associate brand manager on the iconic “blue box” Kraft Macaroni & Cheese business. She started working on the shapes portfolio, with her first product launch being SpongeBob SquarePants Macaroni & Cheese. Later assignments included Kraft salad dressing, DiGiorno pizza, and Jell-O.

She left Kraft in 2007 to run marketing for Newell Rubbermaid’s writing business, including Sharpie and Paper Mate. At Newell, Grimes led the Sharpie marketing plan that made the markers a hit among teenagers, who snapped them up as tools for self-expression. Again, like she did with macaroni and cheese, Grimes found a way to help consumers think about a familiar product in a new way.

Highlights of Sally’s industry recognition include Fast Company’s “Top 100 Most Creative People in Business” and Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women to Watch.”

She has also worked on several boards, including on the board of Beyond Meat, Inc., Continental Grain Company, and Silver Oak Winery.

She lives in suburban Chicago with her husband of 23 years, Steve Grimes, the CEO of Retail Properties of America, and are parents of daughter Isabel and son Noah.

The armies of India and the United States will participate in the 19th edition of the ‘Yudh Abhyas’ exercise on Monday in Alaska, as part of renewed efforts to expand the scope of global strategic partnership between New Delhi and Washington.

The two-week war game will feature a number of complex military drills, according to officials. The Indian Army contingent of 350 personnel has already reached Alaska’s Fort Wainwright ahead of the event that begins today.

Armies from both countries will exchange views and best practices in the military drills on a wide spectrum of skills such as combat engineering, obstruction clearance and improvised explosive device (IED) warfare. It will facilitate both armies to mutually learn from each other and “strengthen their bonds”, according to the Indian Army.

Features of the field training exercise
India’s lead battalion is affiliated with the Maratha Light Infantry regiment, while the US will feature the 1-24 infantry battalion of the first brigade combat team. “Both sides will practice a series of tactical drills to enhance interoperability in conducting UN peacekeeping operations. Personnel from both sides will also hold detailed discussions to share their experiences and best practices,” said Indian Army

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The exercise will be held from today till October 8. The theme of this year’s exercise is ‘Employment of an Integrated Battle Group in Mountain/Extreme Climatic Conditions’ under Chapter VII of the United Nations mandate. A command post-exercise and expert academic discussions on selected topics will also be held.

As per the Indian Army, the scope of this exercise entails “validation of integrated battle groups against hostile forces at brigade level” along with integrated surveillance grid and employment of heliborne or airborne elements and force multipliers.

“It will also feature validation of logistics and casualty management during operations, evacuation, and combat medical aid, and other aspects as applicable to high altitude areas and extreme climatic conditions,” it said.

Last year’s Yudh Abhyas exercise was conducted in Auli, Uttarakhand in November last year. It is an annual joint military exercise by India and the US.

The American pork industry is working on exporting its first shipments of pork to India, an industry leader has told lawmakers.

Randy Spronk, a Minnesota pork producer, was speaking during a Congressional hearing on behalf of the National Pork Producers Council.

“Currently, the US pork industry is working on exporting its first shipments of pork to India. While the threat of removing GSP benefits can induce countries to improve market access conditions for US pork, the possibility of being added to the eligibility list is another mechanism for countries to remove long-standing barriers,” he said.

GSP was successfully used as leverage to obtain market access for US pork producers in India, he said.

Earlier, Spronk said, India was the number one recipient of preferential trade benefits under the US GSP programme but restricted the import of many US agricultural products including pork.

“The list of restrictions was quite extensive but through the leverage created by GSP, the US government was able to successfully negotiate away a long list of issues,” he said.