Francesca DeBiase

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.

As a member of McDonald’s Corporation 12-person Senior Leadership Team from 2015-2022 (reporting to the CEO), Francesca 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, Francesca DeBiase is one of the few Fortune 500 corporate executives who developed and ran combined supply chain and sustainability operations, contributing to McDonald’s standard-setting leadership, recognized by Gartner Supply Chain Masters category.

Based on a decade working in Europe, she returned to the US to develop, lead and execute a revitalized sustainability vision that continues to advance McDonald’s environmental leadership. She initiated dialogue with environmental critics to drive industry-wide change, winning endorsement from management, employees, suppliers and franchisees. She also increased Brand Trust scores with stakeholders, NGO’s, and customers to reinforce the integrity and credibility of the brand.

Francesca has more than 30 years of global restaurant and toy supply chain expertise including food, packaging, logistics, construction, real estate and marketing services. Her finance-based approach to supply chain incorporates P&L accountability coupled with traceability and safety, critical to the success of $175 billion market cap leader as well as appreciation for bottom-line interests of franchisees. She managed the COVID-19 crisis without supply chain interruption to McDonald’s 70M daily customers in 37,000 restaurants across 100 countries.