It is with mixed emotions we announce that Valerie Ashbaugh, SVP and U.S. CIO, has decided to leave McDonald’s at the end of April to begin her next chapter. During her five years at McDonald’s, Valerie has led significant technology transformation in both global and market roles. She helped lead the transformation of our consumer and restaurant platforms and strengthened the technology organization for scale, including the launch of several talent initiatives like Tech Academy. In the U.S., she made immense progress in delivering our global restaurant platform ambition, increasing the pace and scale of technology solutions across McDonald‘s USA.

However, we know the accomplishment she values the most was the time spent building a strong pipeline of technology leaders who focus on fundamentals, solve the right problems, and build a culture that enables everyone to do their best work. 

Seasoned technology leader Mustafa Husain will step into the role of SVP and U.S. CIO effective May 1. Mustafa has led many key technology initiatives for the Golden Arches over the last five years, most recently serving as Vice President, Restaurant Technology Engineering. In that role, he led innovation and engineering for our Global Restaurant platform. His focus has been on strengthening crew-first solutions (such as improving and standardizing POS across the System), establishing a critical foundation for future restaurant platform innovations, and working with internal and external partners to develop AI-enabled solutions across our restaurants. With his global perspective and deep experience deploying technology solutions at scale, Mustafa is well positioned to continue driving innovation, quality, and stability across our technology solutions here in the U.S. - all with the goal of providing Owner/Operators, crew, and customers with the best possible experience. 

Thank you to Valerie for her contributions and welcome Mustafa to the U.S. business.