Roger Mader, co-founder and managing partner of marketing agency Ampersand, is acting as Subway’s interim chief marketing officer following the retirement of Joe Tripodi. Tripodi retired as the chain’s CMO last month.
Subway worked with Ampersand and Mader in 2014 and 2015 on its strategic planning and transformation effort, Ad Age reported.
READ MORE: Digital sparks Subway’s continued evolution
Tripodi joined the world’s largest restaurant chain in late 2015 after leading the marketing efforts at Coca-Cola. He replaced Tony Pace and guided Subway through a tumultuous time. It was soon after the death of co-founder Fred DeLuca and just as Subway was looking to separate itself from former spokesman Jared Fogle, who pled guilt to possessing child pornography and for paying for sex with minors. He’s serving a 15-year, 8-month sentence.
In an interview with Marketing Week, Tripoldi said, “This was one of the most challenging jobs I’ve ever had because it was a privately held company that had lived in a little bit of isolation for many years, so I had to drive some significant transformation.”
Tripoldi’s career spanned 40 years, including stops at Mastercard and Seagrams. He started at IBM in 1977 and was CMO at Allstate and Bank of New York as well.
“My big thing was trying to install an infrastructure in the company to help them be successful long-term,” he added in the article. “So getting them to understand the distinction between what a corporate group does, what regions do and what business units do and ultimately staffing for that. We added quite a few people while I was there and I think my legacy will be the quality of the good people that we were able to bring in.”
Subway is also searching for a permanent CEO following the June retirement of Suzanne Greco. Trevor Haynes has held the interim role since.
