McDonald’s chief exec, 60, dies of heart attack

THE man hailed as the saviour of McDonald’s after introducing salads and fruits to its menus, died yesterday of a heart attack.

Shares fell marginally as news of the death of the company’s chairman and chief executive, James Cantalupo, reached the stock market.

The man chosen as Mr Cantalupo’s successor is Charlie Bell, an Australian who began working with McDonald’s behind the counter at the age of 15.

Mr Cantalupo, 60, died of an apparent heart attack yesterday morning. He was one of the chief architects of the I’m Lovin’ It marketing campaign. The campaign, which uses Justin Timberlake’s song, was one of the most expensive global advertising campaigns ever launched, involving editionalised adverts tailored to meet the audiences of individual countries.

Under Mr Cantalupo, McDonald’s shares rose 71% and were the second best performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average last year.

Hours after his death, the board of directors elected president and chief operating officer Charlie Bell as chief executive and president. The board also named presiding director Andrew J McKenna, 74, as non-executive chairman.

Mr Cantalupo came out of retirement in January 2003 to succeed chief executive Jack Greenberg after the company had its first quarterly loss since going public in 1965.

Mr Cantalupo sparked higher US sales by appealing to health-conscious customers, introducing large salads with Paul Newman dressing and offering Happy Meals with fruits and vegetables.

“Cantalupo was successful as an operations man and McDonald’s recovery was a matter of improving the food and the service,” said Jean-Marie Eveillard of First Eagle Funds in New York, which holds 2.25 million McDonald’s shares.

“Our expectation is Charlie Bell will take over and continue the strategy.”

McDonald’s groomed Mr Bell, 43, for the chief executive post, investors said. The Australian native is expected to continue Mr Cantalupo’s strategy of improving service in the US and sales in Europe.

Mr Bell earned the company’s top job in Asia in 1999 after six years running McDonald’s Australia, where he increased the number of stores to 683 from 388.

Unlike Mr Cantalupo and Mr Greenberg, Mr Bell has hands-on experience in McDonald’s restaurants. He began working at a McDonald’s in Australia at age 15, rising to become that country’s youngest store manager four years later.

Mr Cantalupo died while attending a global meeting of McDonald’s franchisees in Orlando, Florida, director Andrew McKenna said in a statement released by the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company.

He was expected to address franchisees with a speech at 9.30am to start the convention.

“Jim was so admired by everyone he worked with as a great human being and someone who inspired a tremendous number of people at McDonald’s,” said Irwin Kruger, who owns seven McDonald’s in Manhattan and has been a franchisee for more than 35 years.

Mr Cantalupo joined McDonald’s in 1974 after working at Arthur Young & Company. He was named vice-president in 1975 and senior vice-president in 1981.

He was appointed president of McDonald’s International in 1987 and president and chief executive officer in 1991.

After taking over for a second time in 2003, Mr Cantalupo halted an expansion strategy that franchisees said shifted the focus away from quality control and hurt sales at existing restaurants.

He also extended store hours and launched a new advertising campaign.

Last year sales rose 11% to $17.1 billion from $15.4bn in 2002. Net income climbed 65% to $1.47bn.

The chairman had been trying a similar strategy in Europe, McDonald’s second-largest market.

“So much of the international growth and development was what Jim brought to the table,” said Mr Kruger. “That is probably his biggest contribution to the system.”

McDonald’s share price fell 18 cents to $26.83 at 2.59pm in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.