The world’s largest restaurant chain is once again turning to its bench for leadership after Monday’s sudden resignation of Charles Bell as chief executive.
Both James Skinner, McDonald’s Corp.’s newly named CEO, and Michael Roberts, now its president and chief operating officer, have built their careers at the burger giant. It is that pedigree and familiarity that James Cantalupo relied upon–and was followed by Bell–to begin a turnaround at the Oak Brook chain.
Skinner, vice chairman, and Roberts, chief executive of McDonald’s USA, were promoted Monday at an emergency meeting of McDonald’s board.
Chairman Andrew McKenna said the board expected that Skinner and Roberts would continue “the strategic focus” that has led to the chain’s turnaround and 19 consecutive months of sales increases.
Franchise owners, while shocked by the change, said they expect that the new leadership will “continue the roll that they are on.”
“With Skinner, you have a person with a wealth of experience and an acute understanding of the positioning of McDonald’s worldwide,” said Erwin Krueger, owner-operator of seven McDonald’s restaurants in midtown Manhattan.
“And you have with Mike someone who is a great operations guy and leader and someone who understands the relationship between the franchisee and the company,” he said.
Skinner, 60, and Roberts, 53, had been named by McDonald’s board to succeed Bell, who is battling colorectal cancer, in a succession plan that was drafted in July.
Skinner has served many roles in his 33 years with McDonald’s. He was promoted this summer to vice chairman in charge of operations in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. It also put him in position to step in quickly if Bell suddenly resigned or needed time away from the company.
The quick succession of Skinner and Roberts was typical McDonald’s. Bell was named CEO in April within six hours after Cantalupo died of an apparent heart attack.
Skinner is described as quiet, like Cantalupo, and the antithesis of Bell, whose outgoing personality was one of his trademarks.
McDonald’s resurgence began under Cantalupo. “Jim is a classic McDonald’s operations guy. He was the fix-it guy under Jack [Greenberg], Jim [Cantalupo] and Charlie. He was the guy they’d parachute into somewhere where they had a problem,” said one McDonald’s executive. “He was the go-to guy.”
Skinner began his career with McDonald’s in 1971 as a restaurant manager trainee in Carpentersville.
From 1997 to 2001, Skinner was president of McDonald’s Europe. Before that, he was executive vice president and international relationship partner for Central Europe, Middle East, Africa and India from 1995 to 1997.
Unlike Skinner’s broad international experience, Roberts has spent his career engulfed with the company’s domestic operations. He only recently traveled to Europe to install the turnaround plan that he helped engineer in the nearly 13,000 U.S. stores.
McDonald’s “could have hardly asked anybody to do a better job” than Roberts in executing the turnaround, said Janna Sampson, co-manager of the AmSouth Select Equity Fund and director of portfolio management at Oakbrook Investments in Lisle, which holds more than $27 million in McDonald’s stock.
The turnaround required the company to abandon its focus on growth and instead put all of its attention on satisfying customers’ desire for fresher food, cleaner restaurants and better service. The revitalization at McDonald’s has included the introduction of healthy salads that moms can eat while their kids munch on french fries. The chain says it still has much to accomplish.
McDonald’s shares have gained more than 17 percent over the past year. On Monday, before Bell announced his resignation, shares closed slightly higher, at $29.38, on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Together, Jim Skinner and Mike Roberts will provide the seasoned and innovative leadership McDonald’s needs to continue our business momentum going forward,” McKenna said in a statement.
“In this effort, they will benefit from our unparalleled depth of management talent in all areas of the world, which represents a strategic link to the business priorities established by Jim Cantalupo and Charlie Bell.”
