Cynthia (Owens) Trudell (’74) has had one of the most successful and varied business careers imaginable, having made it to the top in the boating, automotive and soft drink industries. She is now Executive Vice-President (Human Resources) at PepsiCo Inc., a position she has held since 2011. She deals with PepsiCo in more than 200 countries worldwide. Prior to working at PepsiCo, she was vice-president at Brunswick Corporation and President of their Sea Ray division.
The daughter of a Saint John, N.B. car dealer, she became the first woman to head an automotive company. She served as vice-president at General Motors and chairman and president of Saturn Corporation.
“Acadia is a very, very special place for me in many, many ways. I don’t know if it was our professors or their approach, but I really learned how to think at Acadia. I don’t know if it’s unique to Acadia, but the curriculum was such that it wasn’t about rote memory. There was an expectation. In organic chemistry, you had to learn the periodic table and all about how that works, but they wanted you to apply what you’re learning. It’s all about applying what you know in a new situation. Learn and apply. I learned that at Acadia.
“There was a strong interdisciplinary focus at Acadia. I think back to the English literature and art courses I took and they served me well. Art taught me spatial orientation. Now I’m not sure that’s what we were supposed to learn there, but that’s what I got. Where did that come in handy for me? Product design in the automotive industry and packaging.
“And I never saw being a woman in business as any kind of obstacle. I never saw that at Acadia, either. There were probably three women or so in engineering and not many in chemistry, but no one ever said, ‘Well, gee you shouldn’t be doing this stuff.’ By the time I got to grad school the equation had been formed. This is not going to get in the way of me. I was never made to feel that women shouldn’t study chemistry. It was like, ‘you can do it if you want to.’
“The school was a nurturing place, so by the time I left Acadia I had a healthy balance between taking risk and having the courage to believe in myself. I learned that failure is an option. It wasn’t about just getting the grade; it was more than that. Every person I’ve ever talked to from Acadia says the same thing. It isn’t about checking the box and then getting out of there.
“When they asked me to be head of human resources for PepsiCo, I was stunned at first and then realized I’ve been interested in this for a long time and wouldn’t admit it. It was an opportunity to learn something new and apply what I know, so for me in this role I can sit down and talk to one of the guys running the business and ask them to tell me about their performance metrics.
“Acadia helped me to learn how to really think about things in multi-variant ways, not to be afraid to try new things. The career decisions are up to the students, but they are also supported there. It wasn’t big classrooms where you’re just like a number. I never felt like a number Acadia.”
“I think my brother Bob Owens (’76) would tell you the same thing. I’m very proud of my brother. He went to Acadia and took a business degree, started with London Life then broke off and I’ll never forget it. He said, ‘I’m going to go and start my own business with a partner,’ and they created a really unique business model for wealth management at Owens MacFadyen Group. He has done very, very well – a real tribute to someone coming out of the business school and the entrepreneurial spirit.”