Church's adds five executivesChurch's adds five executives

Paul Frumkin

Church's Chicken on Tuesday said it has made several executive changes in its supply chain, research, marketing and quality assurance divisions.

The 1,700-unit quick-service chicken chain named Will Costello to the new position of executive vice president of supply chain. Costello most recently was vice president of purchasing for Dairy Queen's international division.

The other new hires are:

- Kirk Waisner, vice president of research and development/quality assurance. Waisner most recently was vice president of quality, supply chain, and commercialization at Popeye's Chicken. He fills a post formerly held by Darrel Sudeman, who left the company.

- Andy Bonaparte, vice president of advertising, a new position. Bonaparte previously served as vice president for advertising at AOL and worked with Burger King and Saatchi & Saatchi in New York.

- Malin Benicek, senior director of quality assurance. He most recently was director of quality assurance, food safety and regulatory affairs at Wayne Farms, a poultry producer.

- Kevin Houston, senior director of research and development. Houston most recently was senior director of product innovation at Burger King.

Church's has units in 22 nations and systemwide sales of about $1.2 billion. It is a division of Friedman Fleischer & Lowe, a San Francisco investment firm that purchased the chain last August from Arcapita of Bahrain.

Contact Paul Frumkin at [email protected].