McDonald’s appoints Kimberly-Clark executive as an independent director and designates its CEO as the new board chairman

Later this spring, the CEO of McDonald’s will take on the role of chairman of the board, the burger brand said on Tuesday.
After 28 years on the board of the Chicago-based corporation, McDonald’s Chairman Enrique Hernandez Jr. is retiring. Chris Kempczinksi, who was appointed President and CEO of the fast food chain in late 2019, will take over as Chairman. The change will take place at the annual meeting of the firm, which is scheduled for May.
CEOs of McDonald’s have historically served as chairman as well.

For instance, Jim Skinner served as CEO and vice chairman of McDonald’s from 2004 until 2012.
Nevertheless, that trend was broken by the company’s later CEOs. From 2012 to 2015, Don Thompson held the position of president and CEO; from 2015 to 2019, Steve Easterbrook had the same position. After Easterbrook was sacked for having a non-physical, consensual relationship with an employee, Kempczinski assumed the roless of president and CEO.
As executive vice president of strategy, business development, and innovation, Kempczinski started working at McDonald’s in 2015. He held leadership roles with Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and Kraft for over 25 years prior to then.
“Having worked alongside Chris, who is currently in his fifth year as CEO, I am confident that he is ideally positioned to merge the CEO and chairman roles to guarantee that McDonald’s keeps up with the rapidly evolving business and social scene of today,” Hernandez said in a statement.
Additionally, Kimberly-Clark Corp. chairman and CEO Mike Hsu has been nominated by McDonald’s to the board as an independent director.
Hsu is a seasoned consumer goods industry veteran with a global perspective, Kempczinski added, which will be beneficial to McDonald’s as it enters a phase of unparalleled expansion. The business said in December that it will establish around 10,000 McDonald’s locations throughout the globe in the next four years.
Additionally, McDonald’s said that HSU will support the company’s objective of having at least 50% of its board members come from diverse backgrounds.