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McDonald's boss dead at 60

 

Monday, April 19, 2004 Posted: 11:23 AM EDT (1523 GMT)

 

Cantalupo died of an apparent heart attack at a company convention.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/04/19/mcdonalds.ceo/index.html

 

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -- The board of directors of McDonald's Corp. named

Charlie Bell as the new president and CEO after chief executive Jim

Cantalupo unexpectedly died of an apparent heart attack on Monday, the

company said in a statement.

 

McDonald's chairman and CEO Jim Cantalupo, 60, died of a heart attack

Monday morning.

 

Bell, 43, is currently president and chief operating officer.

 

" Charlie Bell has worked side by side with Jim during these past 16 months

to revitalize McDonald's all over the world. He is ideally suited and

prepared to continue Jim's remarkable focus and discipline on our business,

" the company said in a statement.

 

Cantalupo, 60, was at the McDonald's Worldwide Owner/Operator Convention

when he died suddenly and unexpectedly of an apparent heart attack in

Orlando, Florida.

 

" Jim was a brilliant man who brought tremendous leadership, energy and

passion to his job. He made an indelible mark on McDonald's system, "

Andrew J. McKenna, the board's presiding director said in a statement.

 

Shares of Oakbrook, Illinois-based McDonald's opened lower on the New York

Stock Exchange.

 

Cantalupo served as chairman and chief executive of the No. 1 fast-food

restaurant chain since January 1, 2003 and had been widely credited with

spearheading McDonald's turnaround in terms of service, quality and sales.

 

In fact, the company started to post double-digit percentage sales gains

during Cantalupo's tenure and McDonald's stock has more than doubled in

price since early 2003.

 

A 30-year veteran of the company, he first joined McDonald's as controller.

 

In 1985, he was appointed a zone manager responsible for McDonald's

operating regions in the Northeast region.

 

He was appointed president of McDonald's International in 1987, and

president and chief executive officer in 1991.

 

Cantalupo also served on the board of directors of Sears, Roebuck & Co. (S:

Research, Estimates) and the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.

 

Company president Bell's name was the first one discussed by analysts when

asked about who will succeed Cantalupo.

 

" The company has been grooming Bell for that role and he's certainly

become more of a public face of the company recently, " said John Glass,

analyst at CIBC World Markets.

 

" Bell is 43 years old, so some could say that he's still green. But

McDonald's has tremendous amount of benchstrength in top management and a

couple of possibilities for that role. " Matthew DiFrisco, analyst with

Harris Nesbitt Gerard, agreed.

 

Analysts say 43-year-old Charles Bell, currently president, could emerge

as Cantalupo's successor.

 

" I think the top two candidates to succeed Cantalupo are Charles Bell and

vice chairman James Skinner, " said DiFrisco.

 

" Cantalupo was the leader of the turnaround, but Bell was also deep into

it. From an investment and corporate point of view, I think there's enough

depth in top management to sustain McDonald's turnaround momentum, but

certainly Jim's leadership skills will be missed. "

 

Money manager Robert Olstein, who owns 1.5 million shares of McDonald's in

the Olstein Financial Alert Fund, wrote a letter to Cantalupo just a few

days after he took over as CEO.

 

In it, he expressed concern that the company's strategic direction of

spending money on opening new restaurants while cannibalizing existing

restaurants was a wrong move and that " the cash flow can be more

profitably employed at a higher return under a stock buy back program. "

 

" Jim wrote back to me in August thanking me for the letter, and we've seen

the changes he initiated, " said Olstein.

 

" Cantalupo was a visionary who took the money and invested it into fixing

the older restaurants and diversifying the menu.

 

The company is running on all cylinders now. He turned this company around

very quickly. "

 

Said Olsetin, " I think Bell is the prime candidate for the job and

hopefully he will continue with improving the McDonald's franchise, the

infrastructure as opposed to expanding the brand. "

 

" Vivamus, dum licet esse. "

" Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. "

-- Petronius, Roman satirist, A.D. 27-66