CHICAGO _ Three executives who were key figures in McDonald's now 2-year-old effort to transform itself are being replaced.
Deborah Wahl, chief marketing officer; Lance Richards, vice president of menu strategy; and Julia Vander Ploeg, vice president of digital, are all leaving the company. The chain, headquartered in suburban Chicago, announced the departures Tuesday night. The three are the first division leaders to depart since the hiring of a new U.S. president at the beginning of the year, former Kraft executive Chris Kempczinski, and suggest that the world's largest burger chain is growing impatient with the slowing speed of its menu and technological innovations.
McDonald's lost its first chief digital officer, Atif Rafiq, to Volvo late last year. The chain also announced the departure of two other executives at that time, moves that were part of an effort to reduce layers of management at the company: Karen King, McDonald's USA's chief field officer and Erik Hess, senior vice president of customer experience. After those executives left, the division presidents reported directly to Kempczinski.
Julia Vander Ploeg is following Rafiq to Volvo, according to her LinkedIn profile. It's not clear where the other executives, Wahl and Richards, are headed.
Their replacements are expected to start later this month.
Morgan Flatley will become the new U.S. chief marketing officer. She comes from PepsiCo, where she was chief marketing officer of global nutrition. Farhan Siddiqi, a former Bank of America executive who has served as vice president of global digital experience at McDonald's since last summer, will be the next head of U.S. digital. Linda VanGosen will be the new head of U.S. menu. VanGosen most recently served as a vice president at Starbucks, where she was responsible for the recently discontinued Evenings program, an initiative meant to grow the coffee chain's p.m. business with wine and beer service.
It's not uncommon for new high-level executives to bring in their own teams, but the new hires represent continued sea change at the burger giant because they are all outsiders. McDonald's had for decades promoted almost exclusively from within, but CEO Steve Easterbrook has changed that model, in part, to get fresh blood and new ideas from hires made outside the Golden Arches.
Under Easterbrook's leadership, McDonald's has made strides in improving the quality of its food and introduced new promotions like all-day breakfast, which renewed customers' interest and boosted sales. But growth has slowed recently and some analysts started to question the lack of new food innovations or menu introductions to lure customers back in the doors. McDonald's acknowledged last month it lost 500 million U.S. customer purchases since 2012, when it started to move away from the Dollar Menu. Most of customer business McDonald's lost was gobbled up by its closest competitors, like Wendy's and Burger King.
McDonald's has tweaked some classic menu items, adding Big Mac sizes and extending its Shamrock mint flavoring in new drinks, but it hasn't announced any big menu additions recently. It said last week it will start using fresh beef on its Quarter Pounders and Signature Crafted burgers, but will keep frozen patties for the rest of its lineup. Wendy's uses fresh beef for all its burgers.
On the digital side, McDonald's has made strides through the introduction of its app and other initiatives to connect with customers online, but has lagged behind competitors in the introduction of increasingly important offers like mobile order and pay. McDonald's plans to have mobile order and pay available at all U.S. stores by the end of the year. It is also making a significant investment in delivery. It's testing a delivery program through UberEats in Florida.
