On April 3, McDonald’s Corporation honored 127 managers
at a special awards ceremony held in their honor at the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago. The
Ray Kroc Award—an annual awards program named after the company’s founder, Ray
Kroc—recognizes the top one percent of its U.S. restaurant managers for their superior
performance, outstanding commitment to customers and excellence in running their
restaurants.

“We gathered last night to recognize and thank McDonald’s top restaurant managers who
have been and continue to be essential to our success—working hard each and every day
towards making our customers smile,” said Alan Feldman, president of McDonald’s USA. “We
are proud of their daily accomplishments and the outstanding examples they set. They truly
exemplify the qualities Ray Kroc himself believed in.”

Winners were nominated by their individual owner/operators and chosen based upon
success in meeting selected criteria, such as operational excellence, reinforcing McDonald’s
commitment to people, and building the business. Each winner received a specially created
trophy and a monetary cash prize. In addition to the banquet, the winners spent a day with
senior management sharing their ideas about what it takes to run a McDonald’s restaurant.

Ray Kroc, who founded McDonald’s at age 52, when most people his age were considering
retirement, was a true entrepreneur and able to build the McDonald’s business because he
believed in the people who worked for him. Kroc was known for saying, “None of us is as
good as all of us,” because he believed that every person involved in the company equally
contributed to its success.