*By Conor White*
PepsiCo's [decision](https://qz.com/work/1349337/pepsicos-long-serving-ceo-indra-nooyi-is-replaced-by-a-man/) that CEO Indra Nooyi will be replaced by company executive Ramon Laguarta highlights the gender disparity in C-Suite roles, an issue that's only getting worse, said New York Times gender correspondent Susan Chira.
"Nooyi said she would've loved to have chosen a woman," Chira said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar. "But there was no one Pepsi saw as a credible successor to her, and I think that's very discouraging."
Nooyi's departure is the latest in a string of female CEO exits since mid-2017, including Marissa Mayer (Yahoo), Irene Rosenfeld (MDLZ) and Meg Whitman (Hewlett Packard Enterprise). Including Nooyi, the number of female S&P 500 chiefs has shrunk 25 percent ー from 32 to 23 ー since last year.
"When women go, it's very seldom that they're replaced by other women," Chira said. "So it's not just that it's really hard to get to the top, it's that the pipeline of women that are seen as credible successors is incredibly small."
During Nooyi's 12-year term as CEO, sales at the company grew [80 percent](https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/10/investing/pepsi-earnings-frito-lay/index.html?iid=EL).
But Chira said that women are less likely to be "targeted" or "seen as leaders," and therefore are not granted an equal opportunity to prove themselves.
"This is something the corporate world has to examine searchingly because all the solutions haven't really worked," Chira said.
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-c-suite-gender-problem).
Tech apprenticeship platform Multiverse became a unicorn with a $1.7 billion valuation, after raising $220 million in a Series D round. As companies across the country face challenges in hiring and retaining tech talent, Multiverse says it's trying to offer a solution with a new way to train and hire workers that can serve as an alternative to college and corporate training. Sophie Ruddock, VP and GM North America of Multiverse, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Cheddar's Kristen Scholer caught up with all-time NBA great Shaquille O'Neal in his hometown of Newark, NJ, working with Icy Hot to repair rundown basketball courts around the country. The Hall of Famer also spoke about the current NBA finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors and had a lot of praise for the Warrior's guard Stephen Curry. "He's the greatest shooter of all time. I had a conversation with Stephen A. [Smith], where does he rank? He's a special player. He has his own category," Shaq said.
On this episode of On The Job presented by ADP: Gemma Burgess, CEO of Ferguson Partners, explains what people are looking for in an employer, and how to convey positive work culture to potential employees; Amy Leschke-Kahle, Vice President of Performance Acceleration at The Marcus Buckingham Company, an ADP company, breaks down how encouraging employee engagement and empowering employee voices can benefit every workplace and busts a myth about employee engagement while working from home; Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice, discusses Hyperice's new employee mental health initiative, known as the Workplace Alliance, with 100-plus companies to combat the ongoing mental health crisis and how they're taking a hands-on, data-driven approach to the mental health crisis.
