By Dee-Ann Durbin
McDonald's CEO will become chairman of the company's board later this spring, the burger chain said Tuesday.
Chris Kempczinksi, who was named McDonald's president and CEO in late 2019, will succeed McDonald's Chairman Enrique Hernandez Jr., who is retiring after 28 years on the Chicago company's board. The transition will happen at the company's annual meeting, which is expected to be held in May.
Historically, McDonald's CEOs have also held the position of chairman. Jim Skinner was McDonald's vice chairman and CEO from 2004-2012, for example.
But the company's subsequent CEOs broke that pattern. Don Thompson served as president and CEO from 2012-2015, while Steve Easterbrook was president and CEO from 2015-2019. Kempczinski took over as president and CEO after Easterbrook was fired for having a non-physical, consensual relationship with an employee.
Kempczinski joined McDonald's in 2015 as executive vice president of strategy, business development and innovation. Prior to that, he spent more than 25 years in senior positions at Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Kraft.
"Having served alongside Chris, who is now in his fifth year as CEO, I know he is uniquely placed to unify the two roles of CEO and chairman to ensure McDonald's advances in lockstep with today's ever-changing business and social landscape," Hernandez said in a statement.
McDonald's also announced the nomination of Mike Hsu, the chairman and CEO of Kimberly-Clark Corp., as an independent director on the board.
Kempczinski said Hsu is a veteran of the consumer products industry with a global perspective, which will help McDonald's as it embarks on a period of unprecedented growth. In December, the company announced a plan to open nearly 10,000 McDonald's restaurants worldwide over the next four years.
McDonald's noted that the board would maintain its status of 50% or more of its members representing diverse backgrounds after the changes.
Dee-Ann Durbin is an AP business writer
Apple sells $46 billion worth of iPhones over the summer as AI helps end slump
Apple snapped out of a recent iPhone sales slump during its summer quarter, an early sign that its recent efforts to revive demand for its marquee product with an infusion of artificial intelligence are paying off.
Sales of the iPhone totaled $46.22 billion for the July-September period, a 6% increase from the same time last year, according to Apple's fiscal fourth-quarter report released Thursday. That improvement reversed two consecutive year-over-year declines in the iPhone's quarterly sales.
The iPhone boost helped Apple deliver total quarterly revenue and profit that exceeded the analyst projections that sway investors, excluding a one-time charge of $10.2 billion to account for a recent European Union court decision that lumped the Cupertino, California, company with a huge bill for back taxes.
Apple earned $14.74 billion, or 97 cents per share, a 36% decrease from the same time last year. If not for the one-time tax hit, Apple said it would have earned $1.64 per share — topping the $1.60 per share predicted by analysts, according to FactSet Research. Revenue rose 6% from last year to $94.93 billion, about $400 million more than analysts forecast.
But investors evidently were hoping for an even better quarter and appeared disappointed by an Apple forecast that implied its revenue for the October-December quarter covering the holiday shopping season might not grow as robustly as analysts envisioned. Apple's stock price shed about 2% in Thursday's extended trading, leaving the shares hovering around $221 — well below their peak of about $237 reached in mid-October.
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