A former City worker and avid Watford Football Club fan has supersized his job at McDonald’s — taking over as boss of the world’s largest food chain.
Steve Easterbrook is the first Brit to run the Big Mac maker, replacing Don Thompson, who claimed he was finding it “tough to say goodbye to the McFamily”.
Shares in McDonald’s rose 3% on the news of Thompson’s exit.
It comes just days after McDonald’s reported its first slip in sales in about 12 years.
Easterbrook, who was made McDonald’s UK chief executive in 2006, is currently its “chief brand officer”.
He was educated at Watford Boys’ Grammar before studying at Durham University and then working at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
He joined McDonald’s in London in 1993, and after a spell in 2011 running PizzaExpress, then Wagamama, returned to the golden arches in June 2013.
Bookies Ladbrokes have seized on the news, inviting customers to take a punt on what British twists Easterbrook might add to the menu.
A range savoury pies has odds of 10/1, while a swapping the Filet-O-Fish meal for fish 'n' chips gets 20/1.
