Name: Patrick Gerber
New title: Chief restaurant officer, McDonald’s USA
Previous title: Senior vice president, chief restaurant officer, McDonald’s U.K. and Ireland
Patrick Gerber will join the McDonald’s USA team on Sept. 1, Skye Anderson, McDonald’s USA president, said in a message to the McDonald’s system. He brings experience working in various McDonald’s markets around the world for over 25 years.
Gerber started at the chain as a crew member in Switzerland and worked his way up to leadership roles, including senior director of national operations for McDonald’s Canada and field vice president for eastern Canada, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“[Gerber’s] experience in the System makes him uniquely suited to lead our Operations function at a critical time: he knows first-hand how restaurants run and what it takes to get it right for restaurant teams and customers alike,” Anderson said.
Gerber’s promotion will help support the chain’s ongoing push to improve food quality and taste, improve hospitality and customer service, which are part of McDonald’s NEXT strategy.
In Gerber’s new position, he will translate strategy into execution across the U.S. restaurant system, improve standards and strengthen “the connection between priorities we set and the way our teams execute every day,” Anderson said.
That could include developing and implementing operational improvements, after the chain saw a drop in its U.S. traffic during the most recent quarter. Management said it deployed too many menu launches too close together, resulting in operational complexities that led to poor execution and low customer satisfaction.
The chain plans to launch a retraining program in October that will impact around 2 million workers worldwide, including company employees and supplier partners.
