McDonald’s names Bryan Brown chief development officer to guide growth, modernization

McDonald’s USA named Bryan Brown its next chief development officer, effective July 14, a move that puts restaurant design, remodels and buildouts closer to the center of the company’s growth plan. The appointment comes as McDonald’s pushes its McDonald’s > NEXT strategy, which is built around more customers, better unit economics and a more automated customer journey.

Brown arrives with more than three decades of experience in restaurant development, real estate, construction and design. He spent more than a decade at Raising Cane’s and helped turn it from a regional concept into a national restaurant system, experience McDonald’s said fits a company trying to align growth with what actually happens on the ground in kitchens, drive-thrus and dining rooms.

That matters inside McDonald’s because development choices do not stop at blueprints. They affect how many labor hours a remodel consumes, how quickly a store can reopen after construction, whether traffic flows cleanly through the lobby and drive-thru, and how much new equipment training a crew needs when a prototype changes. For shift leaders and managers, the difference shows up in staffing pressure, opening-day readiness and the pace at which new processes land on the floor.

Brown will succeed Tabassum Zalotrawala, who had led restaurant development for the past three years and will move into the role of senior vice president, Global Development & Restaurant Design. McDonald’s said Brown will work to make sure development supports the evolving needs of customers, crew and owner/operators, a signal that the company wants construction and design decisions more tightly connected to restaurant operations.

The move lands as McDonald’s says its U.S. base reached 13,706 restaurants at year-end 2025, up from 13,557 in 2024. Worldwide, the system reached 45,356 restaurants, up from 43,477 a year earlier. At that scale, even small changes in prototype, capital allocation or remodel sequencing can ripple through thousands of stores and the people working in them.

McDonald’s launched McDonald’s > NEXT on June 1 as its strategy for the next era of growth and productivity. The company says the plan is meant to bring in more customers more often and improve unit economics. CEO Chris Kempczinski has said the company’s ambition is to be the customer’s first choice every time, while McDonald’s also says the competitive landscape is changing, customer expectations are rising and more of the customer journey is becoming automated.

Brown is joining McDonald’s from Texas with his wife, Tori, and their children, Stone and Piper. The hire suggests McDonald’s is treating development as an operating lever, not just a construction function, as it modernizes stores and resets what crews, managers and franchisees are asked to carry out each day.