People: Lloyd Ward

WINNING ABOVE THE RIM

As captain of MSU's basketball team in 1969-70, he was overshadowed by his backcourt teammate Ralph Simpson. But his work habits impressed coach Gus Ganakas, who foresaw success for Lloyd Ward, '70. Indeed.

After graduating from MSU in mechanical engineering, Ward earned an MBA at Xavier and rose during 17 years with Procter and Gamble to general manager. Though successful, Lloyd felt he could rise higher. In 1988 he moved to PepsiCo Inc., and within one year became president of Frito-Lay's central division in Dallas, TX--a unit boasting 8,500 employees and more than $1.5 billion in sales. Lloyd's group has slam-dunked the competition, capturing a phenomenal 56 percent of the market. 'I am a winner who undertands that winning is important,' he explains. 'I believe in playing above the rim on the court and in my career.' He boss describes him as 'charismatic, energetic and very principled.'

At 47, as he soars towards the highest echelons in corporate America, Lloyd still remembers MSU in a good light. 'It was terrific,' he recounts. 'I was pretty responsible, but I moved to self reliance. I learned how to learn. MSU gave me values, friendship, and an education that has helped me achieve some success.'

As Lloyd and wife Lita (Johnson, also a Spartan) celebrate their 25th anniversary, one son just graduated from Harvard, the other is a senior at Stanford. Very active in community affairs, Lloyd and his division work with 'at risk' students at Dallas' Maceo Smith High. 'We want to inspire and motivate,' he explains. 'In my view, three things are important. One, dare to dream. Many African-American youths are struggling because they don't see any hope for a better tomorrow. Two, play above the rim. In basketball, I tell my teammates, don't expect me to pass you the ball if you can't shoot. Same thing in real life. And three, love adversity. Thomas Edison conducted 50,000 experiments before inventing the light bulb. Some look at it as 50,000 failures, but he found 50,000 ways not to make a light bulb. Adversity builds character. Every success I've had has been resisted by conventional wisdom.'