Kempczinski is an alumnus of both Duke University and Harvard Business School , and lives in Chicago , with his wife and two children .

In a recent interview with McKinsey , Kempczinski discussed his McDonald ’ s experience , and revealed that his priorities in his first year as CEO was to “ refresh the core values that define who we are as a company ”.

To that end , he said he focused on “ being a good listener , in order to understand how people were feeling and what we could do to support them ”.

But before long , he – and the rest of the world – was faced with the Covid-19 pandemic .

“ We had the worst quarter in the history of McDonald ’ s in the second quarter of 2020 ,” he said . “ Our cash flow went down about $ 2 billion in 2020 , and our franchisees were under significant financial stress . There was a lot of anxiety .”

But he went on to explain that the strong emphasis he placed on core values came into its own in 2020 .

“ It helped us address the challenges we faced when the pandemic came along , and I could never have anticipated how much those messages would resonate ,” he said .

28 August 2024