Francesca DeBiase is a Corporate Director and currently serves on the boards of Sysco Corporation, where she sits on the Audit and Sustainability Committees, and Norfolk Southern Corporation, where she sits on the Audit and Governance and Nominating Committees. Francesca is the Former Executive Vice President, Chief Global Supply Chain Officer at McDonald’s Corporation. Francesca is a senior Supply Chain, Sustainability and Finance executive with expertise in leading large, diverse groups and complex processes. Francesca has extensive Global market exposure, including 9-year residence in Europe.

Areas of Expertise:

Member of McDonald’s Corporation 12-person Senior Leadership Team from 2015 to 2022 (reporting to the CEO), where Francesca DeBiase gained the following experience:

• Helped create and execute McDonald’s Turnaround Strategy to drive operational growth, generate brand excitement, and enhance financial value; followed by McDonald’s Velocity Growth Plan to transform the customer experience through service and technology. This resulted in a 97% increase in shareholder value.
• A pioneer in the integration of supply chain and sustainability at McDonald’s, Francesca DeBiase is one of the few Fortune 500 corporate executives to develop and run a combined supply chain and sustainability operation, contributing to standard-setting leadership, recognized by Gartner Supply Chain Masters
• Significant Board room experience at McDonald’s, Francesca DeBiase was the Management Representative for the Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility (ESG) Committee of the Board for five years. She also regularly attended full Board of Directors meetings to present annual Strategic Plans and lead various Supply Chain, Risk and Sustainability discussions.
• Francesca DeBiase transformed McDonald’s Supply Chain from a support function to a Global leadership function within the organization. She leveraged the Company’s scale to achieve consistent annual savings of $200-350 million by leading global sourcing strategies in food, packaging, logistics, toys, technology, and equipment categories.
  • Managed through the COVID 19 crisis without supply-chain interruption to nearly 70 million daily McDonald’s customers in 37,000 restaurants across 100 countries.
• Francesca DeBiase developed, led, and executed a revitalized sustainability vision that continues to advance the company’s environmental leadership.
• Drove meaningful industry-wide change in the food, packaging, and toy arena by working with environmental agencies, winning endorsement from management, employees, suppliers and franchisees (i.e., over 97% of volumes from key commodities support deforestation-free supply chains; external goal of 90% reduction in virgin fossil fuel-based plastic used to make Happy Meal toys).
• Increased Brand Trust scores with stakeholders, NGOs, and customers to reinforce the integrity and credibility of the brand.

Other Areas of Expertise include:

• Qualified Audit Committee Financial Expert: Francesca DeBiase began her career as an auditor in the retail and consumer products industry with Ernst & Young. At McDonald’s, she served in multiple finance roles, culminating as Senior Director of European Finance.
  • Accountable for the allocation of $525 million in annual European capital expenditures. Established financial discipline by standardizing the method of evaluating financial returns for new stores and reinvestments.
  • In Poland, established Finance and IT departments and policies during the start-up phase of this market and reduced borrowing costs by introducing PLN 250 million (≈US$76 million) bond program, the largest in Poland’s history.
  • In Central and Eastern Europe, achieved goal of profitability in all countries in a 2-year period through financial benchmarking and analytical support to new markets.
• Her finance-based approach to supply chain incorporates P&L accountability coupled with traceability and safety, critical to the success of McDonald’s as a $200+ billion market cap leader as well as appreciation for bottom-line interests of individual franchisees.
• Francesca DeBiase has more than 30 years of global restaurant and toy supply chain expertise including food, packaging, logistics, construction, real estate and marketing services.

In addition to her involvement in civic organizations, Francesca DeBiase has focused her efforts on advocacy for women’s empowerment in women-based organizations including The Chicago Network and Achieving Women’s Excellence in Supply Chain Operations, Management and Education (AWESOME).

A recognized thought leader in sustainability and supply chain, Francesca DeBiase is frequently asked to participate in important forums, which most recently have included “What can Cities do to ensure Climate Success” with Metropolitan Planning Council; “Why Private Sector Sustainability is critical for the SDG’s” with Chicago Council on Global Affairs; and “Rethinking the Global Supply Chain” for KPMG’s Annual M&A and Economic Forum. Her media appearances have included Bloomberg TV, NPR and Medium.com.

Francesca DeBiase has been recognized for her leadership in the industry, the community and service to others, including the Loyola University Chicago Damen Award, the AWESOME Legendary Leadership Award as well as the 2019 Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business Commencement Speaker for undergraduates and graduates.

Francesca DeBiase received her Bachelor of Business Administration from Loyola University of Chicago where she was President of Beta Alpha Psi, the national accounting honor society.