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 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 hambur ...

, the American fast food company. On 1 November 2019, the board of directors voted to dismiss Easterbrook with immediate effect, due to evidence of a relationship with a staff member, which is a violation of company anti- fraternisation policies.

Early life

Stephen James Easterbrook was born on 6 August 1967 in

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

, England. He grew up in

and was educated at

Watford Grammar School for Boys Go Forward with Preparation , established = 1884 ( Single-sex) , type = partially selective academy , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Ian A. Cooksey , r_head_label = , ...

. He studied natural sciences at

St Chad's College , motto_English = Not what you have, but who you are , scarf = , established = 1904 , principal = Margaret Masson , senior_tutor = Eleanor Spencer-Regan , undergraduates = 409 , postgraduates = 150 , website = , coordinates = , location_map ...

, Durham University, where he played cricket with fellow student

Nasser Hussain Nasser Hussain (born 28 March 1968) is a British cricket commentator and former cricketer who captained the England cricket team between 1999 and 2003, with his overall international career extending from 1990 to 2004. A pugnacious right-ha ...

, who would later become England cricket captain.

Career

After university, he trained as an accountant with

Price Waterhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

. Easterbrook first worked for McDonald’s in 1993 as a manager in London. In 2011 he left to become CEO of

PizzaExpress PizzaExpress is a British multinational restaurant group, owned by a group of bondholders. It has over 470 restaurants across the United Kingdom and 100 overseas in Europe, Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, the Philippines, the Unite ...

and then CEO of

Wagamama Wagamama (stylised as ''wagamama'') is a British restaurant chain, serving Asian food based on Japanese cuisine. History The first Wagamama was opened in 1992 in Bloomsbury, London, founded by Alan Yau, who subsequently created the Chinese re ...

, two British casual dining chains, before returning to McDonald’s in 2013. On 1 March 2015, after being chief brand officer of

and its former head in the UK and northern Europe, he became the CEO of the company, succeeding Don Thompson, who stepped down on 28 January 2015. For 2016, Easterbrook's total compensation almost doubled to $15.4 million. In November 2019, McDonald's board of directors voted to remove Easterbrook as CEO since he had violated corporate policies on personal conduct by entering into a relationship with a company employee. He was replaced as CEO by Chris Kempczinski, who had been president of McDonald's USA. In August 2020, McDonald's filed suit against Easterbrook, accusing him of lying about the number and extent of his relationships with subordinate employees and seeking to recover his severance package of more than $40 million. The company claimed that Easterbrook had sexual relationships with three women in the year before he was fired and awarded one of these employees stock options worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Easterbrook was also accused of using his corporate email account to receive and send sexually explicit photos and videos of various women (including the three alleged relationships). The lawsuit is seeking to change the reason for Easterbrook's removal to "for cause", allowing the company to recoup its severance payments. In December 2021, it was reported that Easterbrook had returned $105 million in cash and stock to the company in one of the largest clawbacks in the history of corporate America. McDonalds said that "Mr. Easterbrook would return equity awards and cash, with a current value of more than $105 million, which he would have forfeited had he been truthful at the time of his termination and, as a result, been terminated for cause." It did not specify the proportion of cash and stock.

Personal life

He is divorced with three children, who visit McDonald's two or three times a month. He lives in Illinois, and is a

Watford FC Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. They play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club’s original foundation is 1881, aligned with that of its antecede ...

football fan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Easterbrook, Steve 1967 births British chief executives British accountants Living people McDonald's people People from Watford People educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys Alumni of St Chad's College, Durham 20th-century British businesspeople 21st-century British businesspeople