LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Yum! Brands Inc. has announced the appointment of Roger Eaton, 47, as president of KFC USA. He replaces Gregg Dedrick, who will leave by year's end after 20 years with the company to pursue outside business ventures. Eaton will report directly to David C. Novak, Yum! Brands chairman and CEO, and Dedrick will remain through a transition period until early 2009.
In his new role, Eaton will be responsible for KFC's $5.3 billion domestic business, which is predominantly franchised across 5,300 restaurants. For the last five months, Eaton has served as Yum! Brands chief operating and development officer, responsible for sharing global operations best practices.
Eaton is an international restaurant industry veteran and has been with Yum for 12 years. Prior to becoming Yum's COO, he served for seven years as senior vice president/managing director of Yum! Restaurants International South Pacific and Africa region. Under his leadership, the KFC business in Australia delivered 27 consecutive quarters of profitable same-store sales growth.
Emil Brolick, 60, president of U.S. brand-building, will become COO overseeing YUM's restaurant excellence, development, express business and quality assurance. The leaders of each of these functions, along with Ben Butler, president of Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food, will report to Brolick.
