McDonald's announced on Wednesday that Steve Easterbrook, its senior executive brand president and chief brand officer, would be replacing Don Thompson as chief executive of the ailing fast-food chain.
Easterbrook will be the company's first British CEO. (But he won't be its first non-American CEO — that was Charlie Bell of Australia.) Easterbrook grew up in Watford, UK.
In one important way, Easterbrook brings McDonald's something it really needs right now: Someone who knows McDonald's inside out but who also has experience with fast-growing, trendy, fast-food brands that offer something more special and upmarket than the traditional McDonald's fare: Easterbrook was briefly the CEO of both PizzaExpress and Wagamama, and he grew both brands.
As long as nothing goes terribly in the first year of his tenure at the top of the company, he will surely be considered for a place in one of the future Queen's Honors lists.
Here's everything we know about him:
Easterbrook, 47, attended Watford Boys Grammar School in North London. He continues to support Watford FC.
Even at a young age, he was a McDonald's fan, telling The Guardian in 2008: "Me and my mate used to go across the park, jump on the Met line to get the tube into Harrow. There was a sports shop we always used to go into, and there was a McDonald's. We used to go off with three or four quid in our pocket. That would cover our train fare, mooching around Harrow, and going to McDonald's. It was the first time I had shakes and fries."
He then studied natural sciences at Durham University in the UK. After graduating he went on to work for the professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers as an accountant.
In 1993 he joined McDonald's as a financial reporting manager in London. He spent 18 months at "Hamburger University," the McDonald's corporate training academy near Chicago.
He worked in various roles in operations and finance before being promoted to vice president for the UK's southern region in 2001.
In 2006, Easterbrook became the boss of McDonald's UK, overseeing more than 1,200 outlets and an estimated £35 million marketing budget. During his time there he was credited with turning around the business in the region by introducing a sharp focus on employee training, adding healthy options to the menu, and implementing a major restaurant redesign.
We asked Richard Robinson, managing partner of the UK management consultancy Oystercatchers and former head of adult and family marketing at McDonald's between 2004 and 2006, what he thought of his former boss:
"Steve's an outstanding leader, man-manager and all-round good guy. He's passionate about both the McDonald's customer and the McDonald's crew that serve them. He leads from the front counter: This may sound corny, but Steve knows every inch of how the restaurant works, having come up through the ranks. Above all, he's someone we can all trust to always do the right thing. I'm lovin' it."
Easterbrook was promoted to become president of McDonald's Europe in 2010, responsible for 7,000 restaurants across 39 countries. He had originally been given the newly created role of global chief brand officer, but McDonald's U-turned on the decision after just two months and instead moved Easterbrook back to London to look after its European business.
Industry observers guessed at the time that it was this backtracking that led Easterbrook to leave the company in 2011 to become chief executive of the UK restaurant chain PizzaExpress. There he was charged with growing its number of outlets to about 600 from 400.
Easterbrook's tenure at the pizza restaurant, however, was short, as he left to become the boss of the noodle chain Wagamama 2012. At the time it operated 84 restaurants globally. It now has about 140.
Easterbrook returned to McDonald's in 2013, taking up the global chief brand officer role permanently at the company's headquarters in Illinois. Most recently on the marketing front, McDonald's launched a major global advertising campaign, described as a "brand transformation." Here's the TV ad:
Elsewhere, under Easterbrook's watch, McDonald's has been experimenting with more upmarket restaurants in Australia, and it has made dramatic changes to its menu in the US as the company looks to arrest a long-term decline in sales.
Beyond his brief two-year break, Easterbrook has been a McDonald's man since 1993, and the chain is counting on his knowledge of the firm and his marketing skills that helped propel the brand forward in the UK and Europe to turn around a tough period for the company. He has a mammoth task ahead of him as demonstrated by the chart below, showing McDonald's same-store sales in the US under the tenure of outgoing CEO Don Thompson:
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