Yum! Brands Inc. announced the appointment of Roger Eaton, 47, as president of KFC USA. He replaces Gregg Dedrick, 49, who has made a personal decision to leave by year’s end after 20 years with the Company so that he may pursue several outside business ventures and academic coursework. Rather than waiting until the end of the year, the Company appointed Eaton to replace Dedrick now so that there is an orderly transition. Eaton will report directly to David C. Novak, Yum! Brands’ chairman and CEO, and Dedrick will remain through a transition period until early 2009.
In his new role, Eaton will be responsible for KFC’s $5.3 billion domestic business, which is predominantly franchised across 5,300 restaurants. For the last five months, Eaton has served as Yum! Brands’ chief operating and development officer, responsible for sharing global Operations Best Practices.
Eaton is an international restaurant industry veteran and has been with the Company for twelve years. Prior to becoming Yum’s COO, he served for seven years as senior vice president/managing director of Yum! Restaurants International South Pacific and Africa region (SOPAC). Earlier in his career, Eaton was Regional Operations Director of KFC SOPAC, General Manager of KFC New Zealand, and Finance Director of KFC SOPAC. Under his leadership, the KFC business in Australia delivered 27 consecutive quarters of profitable same store sales growth through consistent product innovation and dramatic operations improvements.
Emil Brolick, 60, president of U.S. brand-building, will now become chief operating officer, an executive staff role, overseeing YUM’s restaurant excellence, development, express business, and quality assurance. The leaders of each of these functions, along with Ben Butler, president of Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food, will report to Brolick. He will continue to oversee the Company’s global Marketing Excellence and Marketing College. Brolick serves on the Yum! corporate executive staff, all of whom report to David Novak, as do the presidents of Yum! Restaurants International, Yum! China, KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut.
