Dive Brief:
- Ian Borden, a 28-year veteran of McDonald’s currently serving as its president, international, will move to take on the CFO chair following a round of executive swaps and departures, according to a Monday company release. The move will be effective Sept. 1.
- The corporation’s present CFO, Kevin Ozan, will move to serve as senior executive vice president, strategic initiatives, for the firm on the same date. Ozan, himself a 25-year McDonald’s veteran, has served as CFO for seven years since his appointment in March 2015. Ozan will continue to lead the firm’s strategy team in this new role, and has also indicated his plans to retire from McDonald’s in mid-2023, according to the release.
- These and other executive swaps come after the company indicated it would be making shifts to how they would award franchises, including tightening its review process for current operators, according to a June 23 report by The Wall Street Journal. These changes will take place beginning January 2023, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
Borden has held a variety of leadership positions throughout his nearly 30-year McDonald’s tenure, serving as a VP and CFO for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa between 2014 and 2015, and has also held similar roles for Russia and Eastern Europe during his time with the firm. He also previously served as McDonald’s president for international developmental licensed markets in 2019 before moving to his most current position. A Canadian native, he first joined as a corporate accounting manager for McDonald’s Restaurants in the country in 1994.
Ozan, Borden’s predecessor in the CFO position, has also served several executive roles for the company. He served as the company’s corporate controller from 2008 to 2015 as well as its assistant controller between 2007 and 2008 and has also held several accounting and financial roles throughout the company.
A visual CV shared by McDonald’s in its Monday release credits Ozan with spearheading a $500 million cost reduction initiative during his tenure as CFO. Ozan is also credited with increasing overall sales by 25% to $100 billion during his time in the CFO seat.
The CFO swap comes as several other key executives announced plans to depart the firm, causing shifts in the corporation’s leadership structure. Global Chief Supply Chain Officer Francesca DeBiase will retire from the corporation after serving in the position for seven years beginning March 2015, according to the release. DeBiase will retire August 1, and her position will be filled by Marion Gross, who currently acts as McDonald’s chief supply chain officer for North America.
Meanwhile, McDonald’s Global Impact Officer Katie Fallon has also announced plans to retire and will be stepping down as of July 15. Ozan will oversee the global impact team while McDonald’s hunts for Fallon’s successor, according to the release.
These shifts to its executive structure also follow reports that the corporation will be making shifts to the way it awards franchises, including the introduction of a new, more stringent review process franchisees will need to go through every 20 years, according to The Wall Street Journal report. Performance history and customer complaints will be considered as part of the review process.
Long-time operators of franchises will also need to designate a single family member as the sole operator, according to The Wall Street Journal, and the corporation is also making changes that could increase the cost of taking on ownership for potential next-generation heirs, such as the children or spouse of current owners.
McDonald’s franchisees are responsible for operating 95% of the corporation’s U.S. restaurants.
McDonald’s did not reply to requests for comment.
