McDonald’s Corp. said Wednesday the company has named former Boeing executive Bethany Tate Cornell as the their new chief learning and development officer. Cornell, also named a senior vice president, is tasked with modernizing the learning experience for restaurants and revitalzing Hamburger University.
Cornell, who starts Nov. 2, represents another executive moving from Boeing to McDonald’s. Cornell worked with Chief People Officer Heidi Capozzi, another former Boeing leader.
In a letter sent to employees Wednesday, Capozzi said Cornell will play a key role as the company moves forward on "digital acumen for our teams."
"We have tremendous opportunity to bring new and innovative ways of supporting our learning, development and leadership capabilities throughout the system," Capozzi said in a letter viewed by Nation's Restaurant News.
Cornell, left, lives in St. Louis and plans to relocate to Chicago, where McDonald’s is based, in 2021.
"I feel fortunate to be joining the McDonald’s brand at this pivotal time," Cornell said in a statement released Wednesday. "As learning and development trends continue to evolve to serve global employees in a holistic way, I look forward leveraging the brand’s scale, training, and education programs to support the careers and goals of everyone in our system."
As vice president of leadership, learning & organizational credibility at Boeing, she was responsible for implementing the company’s enterprise learning, culture transformation and workforce development initiatives, McDonald's said.
Prior to working Boeing, she worked for General Electric. There, she led "was responsible for driving employee engagement, learning and development, and employee communications," McDonald's said.
McDonald's founded Hamburger University in 1961 in the basement of one of its restaurants with a class of 14 people. The flagship training center now has several international campuses. When asked what kind of changes are planned, McDonald's did not comment.
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Updated: This story was edited to remove information about Cornell's duties that was listed in error by McDonald's Corp.
