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