McDonald’s has hired Petco CMO Tariq Hassan as its chief marketing and digital customer experience officer for McDonald’s U.S., filling the role held by Morgan Flatley, who is one of three executives promoted within the restaurant giant’s marketing and international market leadership ranks.

Paul Pomroy, the CEO of McDonald’s U.K. and Ireland division, takes over as corporate senior VP of International Operated Markets, a position that opened up with the recent promotion of Manu Steijaert. Alistair Macrow, McDonald’s global chief marketing officer, takes over Pomroy’s post. And Flatley, the current chief marketing and digital customer experience officer for McDonald’s U.S., is being promoted to global CMO.

Read: Tariq Hassan on why he’s joining McDonald’s

The internal appointments are effective Nov. 1. Hassan is set to join McDonald’s on Sept. 27, filling the role being vacated by Flatley, and becoming the latest external hire to lead the Golden Arches marketing in the U.S.

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Flatley will become a member of McDonald’s global senior leadership team in her new role. She will be overseeing global brand, menu strategy, family marketing, media partnerships and customer and business insights.

Flatley, one of the leaders behind the U.S. division’s move to hire Wieden & Kennedy New York as its lead creative agency in 2019, says she has no plans right now for any global agency reviews. 

“We have a very strong roster of global agencies,” she says. “I’m excited to get to know them and see the work.”

Around the world, McDonald's works with creative agencies including Cossette, DDB, Leo Burnett and TBWA.

"Growth driver"

Hassan is joining during a period of strength for the world’s largest restaurant brand, which has been putting more emphasis and spending behind marketing including its celebrity-driven Famous Orders campaign and digital efforts such as the recent rollout of its loyalty program.

“I think there’s a real pride in the way marketing is showing up for the brand today,” says Flatley, who adds that within the U.S. business, marketing is now seen as a growth driver rather than “an afterthought.”

Now, she hands the leadership of the U.S. marketing organization to Hassan, a highly-respected marketer and experienced agency executive, who has been Petco’s CMO since 2018. The two know each other from the early 2000s, when Hassan was at Chicago-based agency Element79 and Flatley was a client while at PepsiCo.

At Petco, Hassan shifted the San Diego-based retailer to a wellness positioning to plug moves such as discontinuing harmful products such as shock collars. The pet retailer's marketing is handled by Droga5, which won the business in 2020.

“Today’s announcement reflects our commitment to developing a pipeline of customer-focused leaders who are making sure that the McDonald’s brand doesn’t just remain relevant for this generation, but the next,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a statement.

Flatley, who joined McDonald’s from PepsiCo in 2017 when Deborah Wahl left, led the marketing transformation in the massive U.S. business, including campaigns such as the Famous Orders effort that currently features Saweetie, a social media focus with a brand voice that better reaches the brand’s fans, and more use of data in areas such as the MyMcDonald’s Rewards program. 

Flatley says that the pandemic further pushed McDonald’s efforts that were already underway. “The uncertainty of COVID forced us to really lead with the customer in ways we hadn’t before because we didn’t know what was coming next,” she says. 

Series of executive moves

The latest moves come weeks after McDonald’s promoted Steijaert to the newly created role of executive VP and global chief customer officer, reporting to Kempczinski. 

As corporate senior VP of International Operated Markets, Pomroy will be responsible for McDonald’s in a dozen international markets: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine. He has held a variety of roles since joining McDonald’s in 1996, 

Macrow, who joined McDonald’s in 2007 and became global CMO in 2020, has prior experience in its international business, having served as CMO and corporate VP of McDonald’s Internationally Operated Markets division and as its chief marketing and communications officer in the UK. 

Pomroy and Macrow will report to Ian Borden, McDonald’s international president. Flatley will report to Steijaert. Hassan will report to Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA.