The former Domino’s executive vows to streamline operations and leverage brand’s heritage
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Tom Curtis has been promoted to president of Burger King U.S. & Canada, parent company Restaurant Brands international announced Monday.
He replaces Chris Finazzo, the former president of Burger King Americas, who abruptly left the company last month.
Curtis joined Burger King Americas in March as chief operating officer. Prior to that he spent nearly 15 years at Domino’s, most recently as executive vice president for U.S. operations and support
“Tom joined us a few months ago and has quickly established a strong leadership position in the business and trust with our franchisees, informed by his 35 years of previous restaurant experience as both a franchisee and senior operations executive,” RBI CEO José Cil said in a release announcing Curtis' promotion. “Tom will lead the acceleration of our business to deliver on our vision that Burger King should always be our guests’ first choice for a quality meal, an exceptional and convenient experience and great value. We have the right priorities identified and this is a matter of having a strong leader and team with the right focus and pace to deliver the high expectations that we have of ourselves.”
In the release, Curtis outlined his priorities.
“I’m extremely impressed by the quality of our team and the partnership we have with our great franchisees,” he said. “Together, we will work to accelerate the performance of the Burger King brand through an intense focus on our guest experience and success on five key priorities. We intend to play to our distinctive heritage and strengths, evolve our menu to deliver exceptional taste and value in key dayparts, streamline our operations to provide our guests with a consistent, quality experience, accelerate our digital integration – led by the nation-wide launch of our Royal Perks loyalty program — and drive the transformation of our restaurant network with high quality locations, exciting design and high ROI [return on investment] for our franchisees.”
Finazzo’s departure appeared to be part of a larger shakeup within Burger King, which included the termination of its head of culinary innovation, Michael Salem, who had been with the brand since late 2017.
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