New York: PepsiCo’s India-born CEO Indra Nooyi has said Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the elections has left her daughters, gay workers, employees and the non-whites devastated as there was “serious concern” among them about their safety in the US with Donald Trump as President.
“Do you have a box of tissues here,” Ms Nooyi, a staunch Clinton supporter, said at the New York Times Dealbook Conference here when asked how she felt on the morning of November 9, when Mr Trump won the presidential election.
A visibly dejected Ms Nooyi said Ms Clinton’s loss left her daughters and PepsiCo’s employees devastated and there were serious concerns among the company’s workers, especially the non-white employees, about their safety in an America with Mr Trump as its President.
“I had to answer a lot of questions from my daughters, from our employees. They were all in mourning. Our employees were all crying. The question that they are asking, especially those who are not white ‘Are we safe’, women are asking ‘Are we safe’, LGBT people are asking ‘Are we safe’,” she said at the conference on November 10.
Ms Nooyi said she had never thought she would have to answer such questions, stressing that people across America should be assured that they will continue to be safe in the country.
“The first thing that we all have to do is to assure everybody in the US that they are safe, nothing has changed because of this election. What we heard was election talk and that we will all come together and unify the country,” she said.
Congratulating President-elect Donald Trump, Ms Nooyi said those who supported Ms Clinton are mourning but life has to go on. “The process of democracy happened, we just have to let life go on. We have to come together and life has to go on,” she said. Ms Nooyi voiced concern that real issues facing the country were not talked about in the election campaign.
