Don Thompson (executive)
| Don Thompson | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Donald Thompson March 30, 1963 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Purdue University, 1984, B.S. (electrical engineering) |
| Occupation | Electrical engineer, Northrop Grumman (1985–1990) McDonald's Executive (1990–2015) CEO, McDonald's Corporation (2012–2015) |
Donald 'Don' Thompson (born March 30, 1963) is an American engineer and business executive who was the president and chief executive of the McDonald's Corporation from 2012 until 2015. He announced on January 28, 2015 that he would retire from the company and leave his position on March 1, 2015 and was succeeded by Steve Easterbrook, the senior executive vice president and chief brand officer.
Thompson, who was born in Chicago, grew up near the Cabrini–Green housing project was a bright student who started the sixth grade at the age of 10. In seventh grade he began carrying a briefcase to school. Because of gang violence and crime that began to spread through the area in the late 1960s and 1970s, he was later moved by his grandmother to live with relatives in Indianapolis, where he attended North Central High School.
Thompson is a graduate of Purdue University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1984 in electrical engineering. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Excelsior College. Thompson is a brother of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Thompson is, by profession, an electrical engineer who joined McDonald's in 1990 after working for a military aircraft manufacturer that is now part of Northrop Grumman. At McDonald's, Thompson designed robotic equipment for food transport and made control circuits for cooking. Thompson received a call from a McDonald’s recruiter who was looking for an engineer to design "robotics, control circuitry and feedback loops". Although reluctant to take the job at first, he accepted an invitation to visit the McDonald's headquarters in suburban Chicago by an engineer working there. Soon after the visit he was hired and enrolled in the company’s Black Career Development program, classes that McDonald’s has held since the 1970s both to educate all employees.
Having started his career at McDonald's in 1990, Thompson quickly rose on the corporate ladder. By 1992, he was promoted to Project Manager and Staff Director for the Quality Development department. He then switched over to Operations in 1994, and while there, spent his first six months learning the basics on how to manage a "McDonald's" restaurant by working at a South Chicago restaurant, moving up from fry cook to shift manager, then assistant manager and then co-manager.
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