Posted on: Wednesday, April 21, 2004
McDonald's new CEO a fast study
By Jamie Tarabay
Associated Press
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CHARLIE BELL
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At 15, Charlie Bell took a $2.48-an-hour job near his home in working class Kingsford. Now 43, he has been anointed as McDonald's first non-American, and youngest-ever, chief executive, earning $5.9 million a year.
At the same restaurant where Bell once worked the grill, mopped the floors, and scooped up french fries, customers yesterday cheered the local boy who made good.
"Wow. Good on him. That's a remarkable achievement," said Gino, a regular diner who declined to give his last name.
"I guess as an employee of McDonald's it would give you a lot of inspiration or faith to know that as a manager, if you do the hard yards, there could be something there for you," he said.
Bell was named head of the world's largest restaurant chain on Monday, just hours after chief executive Jim Cantalupo, 60, died of a heart attack at the company-sponsored convention in Orlando, Fla.
Outside the Kingsford restaurant the company's flag flew at half-staff. In what they said was a mark of respect, company officials wouldn't let reporters talk to the staff like Ryan Fitzroy — a 14-year-old who gets $4.55 an hour — just under double what Bell got in 1976 — to sling patties into sesame seed buns.
"People working in head office started just like (Bell) did in McDonald's restaurants. It can lead to a major career," said Sarah Watkins from McDonald's corporate headquarters.
Bell's ascent was meteoric. He became Australia's youngest store manager at 19 and a vice president eight years later.
In 1993, Bell was appointed managing director of McDonald's Australia and headed Asian operations in 1999. He then took over the presidency for Europe. Before he was appointed as CEO, Bell had been international president and chief operating officer.
Bell is now responsible for more than 30,000 restaurants in 118 countries.
Guy Russo, now the head of McDonald's Australia, began his career with the fast-food giant alongside Bell at the Kingsford restaurant — also at the age of 15.
He said that even then he and Bell believed they would one day run the company.
"I think both our parents were in shock. They would much rather us have done something else," Russo told Sydney radio station 2UE in a telephone interview from the Florida convention. "If you like what you do you continue to do it; sometimes you look outside. But we just love what we do."
