McDonald’s Corporation has named Skye Anderson, a seasoned executive with more than 26 years of experience at the quick service restaurant franchise, president of McDonald’s USA. Her appointment reflects the Chicago-headquartered company’s focus on strengthening value offerings for customers and driving long-term profitable growth. In this role, she will oversee nearly 14,000 restaurants across the United States and lead the largest McDonald’s market.
Anderson succeeds Joe Erlinger, who has decided to leave after more than two decades with McDonald’s, including almost seven years heading up the US business. He will work closely with Anderson to ensure a seamless leadership transition and serve as an advisor until early 2027.
The new president’s appointment follows a deliberate leadership transition and continuity plan initiated earlier this year with her return to McDonald’s USA as chief operating officer, with the goal of helping ensure continuity.
“Skye combines deep operational discipline with strong financial judgment and has earned the trust of owner/operators, suppliers and employees,” said Chris Kempczinski, chairman and chief executive officer of McDonald’s Corporation. “I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Skye throughout much of her career, and I’ve repeatedly turned to her to lead some of our most important businesses and transformation efforts because she’s a proven change agent who can act with urgency to mobilize our System.”
He added: ”As we bring McDonald’s > NEXT to life, the US business has a critical role to play in translating our ambition into action for customers, crew and owner/operators. Having led the US business myself, I understand the opportunities and challenges ahead. Skye knows that great strategies only matter if they create better outcomes in restaurants. I look forward to working closely with her and the US leadership team to help accelerate performance and unlock the significant opportunity in front of us.”
Deep Experience Across the McDonald’s System
Few leaders have worked across as many parts of the McDonald’s system as Anderson. Her experience spans finance leadership in Australia, field and zone leadership across the United States, the creation of the company’s global business services and, most recently, leadership of US operations as chief operating officer.
Anderson has helped drive results while leading through periods of transformation and growth. Over a four-year tenure as head of the US West Zone, she helped support strategic initiatives that modernized a base of more than 5,700 restaurants, drove comparable sales growth of more than 30 percent, and increased average restaurant unit cash flow by $100,000. She has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to translate strategy into execution and deliver results across different parts of the business.
