Indra Nooyi will step down as the chief executive of PepsiCo this year, ending a 12-year run in which she sought to refashion the drinks and snacks giant into a purveyor of healthier foods and beverages.

Her decision to step down in favor of Ramon Laguarta, a 22-year veteran of the company, is the latest in a series of resignations by women at the helm of major companies, depleting the already thin ranks of women business leaders.

Nooyi, 62, is to be replaced as chief executive by Laguarta on Oct. 3 but will remain as PepsiCo’s chairwoman until early 2019, the company said.

She presided over a significant expansion of PepsiCo’s business, with revenue growing to $63.5 billion last year, from $35 billion in 2006, while the company’s share price nearly doubled in that time.

Her tenure leading the company was characterized by a focus on shifting it from sugary soft drinks, which were less and less profitable.

Under Nooyi, PepsiCo diversified its mix of products away from fatty snacks. It now offers customers baked chips and water brands like Lifewtr and Bubly, and it recently acquired Bare Foods, a maker of baked fruit and vegetable snacks. Since 2006, the percentage of revenue coming from healthier food and beverages at PepsiCo has climbed to 50 percent, from 38 percent.

In many ways, she was ahead of the curve with that shift. From 2014 to 2018, U.S. snack sales rose 12 percent, with a large portion of that growth coming from healthy or organic foods, according to Nielsen Retail Measurement Services.

Born in Chennai, in southern India, Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and held a series of strategy roles before becoming its chief financial officer in 2000. She took over as PepsiCo’s first female chief executive in October 2006.

Laguarta’s appointment continues a tradition of PepsiCo finding leaders from within its ranks. A native of Barcelona, Spain, Laguarta, 54, was previously the head of the company’s operations in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, and before that president of its Eastern Europe division.