Executive Chairman, UNIFI INC
Episode 109: (Replay) Leading through Adversity, Al Carey
This week we revisit our conversation with Al Carey, who recently served as CEO of PepsiCo North America until he retired from ...
About Albert Carey
Albert Carey, executive chairman at Unifi and former CEO of PepsiCo North America, has continued to speak publicly about leadership and organizational growth. In a June 2025 interview, Carey reflected on his six-year tenure as a board member at Purple Crow, noting that sales had increased fivefold during that period. He attributed the company's success to the Calhoun family's treatment of employees, stating that "when you see leaders that treat people right, good things happen." Carey has repeatedly advocated for a servant leadership model, describing the frontline workforce as the most important people in an organization and the CEO as the least important. In earlier appearances, he discussed managing through adversity, advising leaders to "play offense" during crises when others are playing defense. He also emphasized the importance of managing cash and liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and praised companies like Home Depot for prioritizing employee safety with measures such as masks, gloves, social distancing, and enhanced pay.
Transcript (6 segments)
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Mark Coinstein0:02
Welcome to the Motivated to Lead podcast, helping you become a better leader. I'm your host, Mark Coinstein.
Hi everyone, thanks again for joining us for our podcast this week. My name is Mark Klingstein with Sema Partners. Each week we interview leaders and they share lessons learned from their careers. Our goal is to help you become a better leader. If you haven't listened to some of our previous podcasts, I encourage you to go back and listen. We've had some great guests. This week we're taking some time to look back at some of our previous conversations and we're going to be talking with Al Kerry. Al is going to be talking on the subject of leading through adversity. He has great experience as an executive; most recently he was the CEO of PepsiCo North America and has held numerous executive positions through his career. He serves on the board of Home Depot as well as the University of Maryland. He has some great lessons he's going to share and I'm looking forward to today's conversation. I guess first off, can you give us just a little bit of an overview of your career and just kind of a high level of your story?
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Albert Carey1:10
Well sure. I began at the University of Maryland and when I graduated from there, I started with Procter & Gamble in their sales department. I didn't even go to school for business; I went for poli-sci and I ended up getting recruited by Procter & Gamble. They trained me to be a salesperson and into management, and eventually ended up going to Frito-Lay. So I spent 38 years at PepsiCo and just retired a year and a little bit ago. My last job was the CEO of the North America business for PepsiCo. Since then, a couple of other things I do: I'm the chairman of the board of Unifi, which is a textile company in North Carolina making sustainable materials for athleisure, and I'm on the board of Home Depot and my university, the University of Maryland, and the Bridgeport Rescue Mission.
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Mark Coinstein2:06
Okay, you're busy after retirement still. Almost a full week. Well, it's great. I know we connected; you were on the board of a non-profit that we've done work for and definitely met back then. But I guess knowing this is a question I like to ask almost every guest that we have on: now that you've had an incredible career and continue to stay very active, knowing what you know now, if you were able to go back and talk to a 22-year-old Al and give them some advice, what advice would you give them?
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Albert Carey2:51
That's a good question. And I feel grateful for everything that happened in my career. A lot of people helped me get to where I was. But one thing I've discovered is that leadership is more important than I even imagined. So on a skill set review, you look at analytics, sales ability, insights; it is clearly leadership. People want to be led, and it's really important for a leader to not only have confidence but also to give confidence and to serve others. What I finally learned as I went on is that your role as a leader is more to remove obstacles than it is to tell everyone what to do, assuming you have the right team working for you. So I would say my recommendation to myself was to have more confidence in the early days, expect more of yourself, but then give to your people and help them develop by giving them confidence. It really makes a difference. As I look at some of the young people that we've developed over the last few years at my last job at PepsiCo, what I'm most proud of is seeing a bunch of them elevating through the system. It's remarkable once those young people get some confidence; they can step up. If they're always playing defense and looking behind their shoulder, they won't develop. I remember a couple of jobs where I didn't have confidence and you stagnate. Then I remember a couple of executives who really gave me confidence by acknowledging that my ideas were good, by complimenting me in front of large groups or promoting me. It's such an important thing. So it may sound vague, but I think if you're a young person coming up through the ranks, if you have a leader that can give you a little bit of confidence in yourself, then you are able to give it to someone else. It's the same thing in sports, the same thing in parenting. You can build people and nurture them. This is a really important learning that I've had.
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Mark Coinstein4:57
So this is a unique time in our history. I think it's evident that we need leadership now more than ever, especially during this crisis that's worldwide. What thoughts do you have around leadership during this time of crisis or adversity? What do leaders need to be doing maybe differently than they would during normal times?