Vice President & General Manager, McDonald’s Business Unit

CHG is a leading global bakery platform with over 5,000 employees and 30 manufacturing facilities across North America and Europe. With a 175 year heritage of quality and service — and the backing of Pritzker Private Capital — CHG is positioned for accelerated growth, operational transformation, and strategic expansion. The VP, GMBU owns the end-to-end commercial relationship with McDonald’s for the Bakery & Frozen portfolio across our global footprint (US, Canada, UK, Belgium, Austria and Germany). They will run our McDonald’s relationship like a “business inside the business” — driving profitable growth, building Joint Business Planning (JBP) from scratch, and orchestrating enterprise execution with a system-first mindset.

Key Responsibilities

• Relationship ownership and governance
  • Serve as the enterprise channel owner for McDonald’s; lead top-to-top engagement and relationship health across regions.
  • Translate complex system issues into decision-ready options; drive fast alignment and follow-through.
• Commercial stewardship (pricing, contracts, negotiations)
  • Set and execute pricing strategy; ensure disciplined price realization and value articulation.
  • Lead partnership agreements, strategy and negotiations; protect long-term economics while strengthening partnership equity.
• Build and run Joint Business Planning (JBP)
  • Establish the operating cadence: weekly operating reviews, monthly scorecards, quarterly business reviews, and annual JBP.
  • Create multi-year strategic roadmaps that align with McDonald’s priorities integrating innovation, productivity, and sustainability; translate into executable plans.
• Cross-functional orchestration and executive reporting
  • Align R&D/Innovation, FSQS/QA, Supply Chain/Operations, Finance, Sustainability, and Customer Service/Forecasting around one integrated plan and clear ownership.
  • Provide clear reporting to the CEO: performance, risks, opportunities, and actions.
• Supply assurance and escalation leadership (bakery/frozen)
  • Drive assured supply consistency through proactive robust risk management, scenario planning, and disciplined recovery execution when disruptions occur.
  • Partner with McDonald’s supply ecosystem and logistics partners to strengthen resilience and decision velocity.
• FSQS leadership
  • Sustain and improve food safety and quality performance; lead transparent, root-cause corrective action and prevention.
  • Ensure rapid, high-integrity issue response and closure with clear stakeholder communications.
• Innovation + productivity execution
  • Ensure scalable, operationally feasible commercialization across regions; advance the pipeline with speed, discipline, and accountability.
  • Deliver productivity: simplification, cost-to-serve improvements, capability upgrades, and reliability gains.
• Talent leadership
  • Build and develop a high-performance team (4 direct reports + matrix); strengthen bench depth and succession readiness.
  • Foster a collaborative, high‑accountability, high‑engagement team culture.
  • Develop succession and elevate capability across the function and enterprise.

Scope:

• Stakeholder coverage includes all key McDonald’s groups: Supply Chain, QA/FSQS, NP/Menu, Sustainability/Social Accountability, Finance, Operations, and system partners.
• Balanced mandate: innovation + productivity + execution reliability; sustain and improve positive FSQS trends.

Key relationships:

• Reports to: President & Chief Executive Officer
• Direct reports include:
  • Director Technical Services
  • Director, McDonald’s Business Unit North America
  • Commercial Manager
• Critical Internal CHG Stakeholder – matrixed influence
  • Executive leadership team
  • R&D / Innovation / Culinary
  • Operations / Supply Chain leadership
  • FSQS/QA and Regulatory
  • Finance (pricing, profitability)
  • Customer Service / Forecasting
  • Sustainability, Marketing/Insights (as applicable)
• Critical external stakeholder – McDonalds system
  • Supply Chain
  • QA/FSQS
  • NP/Menu Development
  • Sustainability/Social Accountability
  • Finance / commercial governance
  • Operations leadership
  • System partners (e.g., logistics/distribution/planning)

Competencies Of the Ideal Candidate

• Must-haves (what good looks like)
  • P&L & commercial acumen: runs the customer like a business; disciplined pricing, mix, cost levers, and ROI trade-offs