Christopher John Kempczinski (born 1968) is an American business executive, and the president and
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
(CEO) of
McDonald's Corporation
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger st ...
.
Early life
Christopher John Kempczinski was born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
and raised in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
. He is the son of Richard Kempczinski, who was Professor of Surgery and Chief of Vascular Surgery at the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
Medical Center,
and Ann Marie Kempczinski (), who was a primary school teacher at Terrace Park Elementary in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He graduated in 1987 from Indian Hill High School in suburban Cincinnati.
Kempczinski earned a bachelor's degree from
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in 1991,
and an MBA from
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
in 1997.
Career
Kempczinski started his career with Procter & Gamble in brand management, and worked for four years in its soap sector division, before leaving to attend Harvard Business School (HBS). After HBS he became a management consultant at the
Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...
, focusing on consumer products and pharmaceuticals.
In 2000, Kempczinski joined PepsiCo in its corporate strategy & development group, and in 2006, was VP, Marketing, Non Carbonated Beverages, Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages.
Before joining McDonald's, Kempczinski worked for
Kraft Foods
The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015.
A merger with Heinz, arra ...
as executive vice president of growth initiatives, and president of Kraft International.
He left Kraft in September 2015.
Kempczinski joined the McDonald's global strategy team in late 2015, and was promoted to president of McDonald's USA in October 2016 where he oversaw the business operations of approximately 14,000 restaurants.
In November 2019, he succeeded
Steve Easterbrook
Stephen James Easterbrook (born 6 August 1967) is a British business executive. From March 2015 to November 2019, he was president and chief executive of McDonald's, the American fast food company.
On 1 November 2019, the board of directors vot ...
as president and
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
.
In 2021, Kempczincki apologized to employees and the public for private remarks he made about the gun deaths of children at McDonald's. In correspondence with
Mayor Lightfoot
Lori Elaine Lightfoot (born August 4, 1962) is an American attorney and politician serving since 2019 as the 56th mayor of Chicago. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot worked in private legal practice as ...
of Chicago, he blamed parents of the victims: “With both, the parents failed those kids which I know is something you can’t say. Even harder to fix.”
Publication of the exchange "sparked outrage." Chicago civic groups and the
Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing almost 1.9 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States and Canada. SEIU is focused on organizing workers in three sectors: healthcare (over half of member ...
demanded Kempczinski apologize, saying “Your text message was ignorant, racist and unacceptable coming from anyone, let alone the CEO of McDonald’s.”
Board seats and associations
*McDonald's Corp. Board of Directors
*Proctor & Gamble Board of Directors
*RMHC Trustee
Personal life
Kempczinski is married with two children.
He has run marathons,
and as of 2020 was running at least 50 miles a week.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempczinski, Chris
Living people
McDonald's people
American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies
Duke University alumni
Harvard Business School alumni
Kraft Foods people
1960s births
Boston Consulting Group people
Procter & Gamble people
Businesspeople from Cincinnati
American chief executives of food industry companies
20th-century American businesspeople
21st-century American businesspeople
American people of Polish descent
Businesspeople from Boston