5 Things to Know About McDonald’s Senior Vice President, Chief Learning and Development Officer Bethany Tate Cornell

Bethany Tate Cornell has joined McDonald’s as its new Senior Vice-President, Chief Learning and Development Officer. Bethany comes to the McFamily from Boeing as their former Vice President - Leadership, Learning & Organizational Capability, where she was responsible for implementing the company’s enterprise learning, culture transformation and workforce development initiatives.

Get to know Bethany here with five quick facts about her!

1. She’s no stranger to iconic brands. Throughout her professional career, Bethany has worked for several household names, including IBM, General Electric (GE), Gap Inc. and most recently, Boeing. She’s known for charting new paths and leading large, global teams through transformation, culture change and growth. In her most recent role at Boeing, Bethany transformed the company's workforce development strategy for 150K employees in 65 countries. At GE, she led culture integration for the organization’s largest acquisition and integrated a 65K global workforce into GE’s portfolio.

2. She grew up in the restaurant business. Bethany is the sixth of seven children in an Italian and Slovak family. Growing up, she performed most of the jobs you can do in a restaurant, from waitress and hostess to busing tables and being a short order cook. The two restaurants run by her brothers continue to thrive to this day. Bethany cherishes visits home to Western Pennsylvania to be with family and partake of the amazing food.

3. She’s a pioneer, who’s unafraid to try new things. “With each experience that is put in front of you – seize it. Learn. Try. Do. Experiment. Maybe fail, but learn from that,” Bethany has said.

4. Her passions outside of work include cooking, travel and sports. When Bethany’s not in the office, she’s often traveling the world. She’s visited 23 countries so far and loves to travel with her family. Speaking of her family, she loves to cook for them and with them. They have experimented in the kitchen with many new recipes during the pandemic. She also happens to be a die-hard Pittsburgh Steelers fan having grown up in Western Pennsylvania, a Red Sox fan by marriage and an adopted St. Louis Blues fan in her current hometown.

5. She’s excited to join McDonald’s because... she’s seen the learning innovation work McDonald’s has developed in recent years, and she’s impressed. She’s eager to continue modernizing the learning experience for our restaurants, and revitalizing Hamburger University. She’s also heard good things from McDonald’s Chief People Officer Heidi Capozzi, who she worked with at Boeing.