Former McDonald’s and Subway Executive Named President of Acrelec Americas

Acrelec announced the appointment of restaurant industry veteran John Owen to the newly created role of President, Acrelec Americas with responsibility for reinventing the customer experience alongside the restaurant and retail partners in the region.

Over his 34 years in the restaurant industry, Owen held a variety of operations and leadership positions at McDonald’s Corp. beginning his 30-year career as a crew member and working his way up to Corporate Vice President of Strategy and Execution. He subsequently became the President and CEO of Subway in Russia where he led the effort, along with his franchisees and suppliers, to double the size of the brand in his first two years to more than 700 restaurants. Most recently, Owen was the principle of Owen & Associates, LLC, an executive consulting firm specializing in assisting suppliers to the restaurant and retail industry to become strategic partners with their customers.

The hiring of Owen comes on the heels of Acrelec’s December 2021 acquisition of the iconic drive-thru tech brand OrderMatic. Acrelec counts over 80,000 installations around the world in 70 countries and nearly 1,000 employees, including two manufacturing plants and a 150-person software division. They work with iconic brands such as McDonald’s, Dunkin’, Burger King, KFC, and Taco Bell, providing a full ecosystem of technology solutions for drive-thru, self-checkout, kiosk and click and collect

"I'm honored to have been chosen to lead such an exceptional brand in the Americas," said Owen. “I’m especially excited to be working with a team of people who are so passionate about developing and supporting an ecosystem of technology solutions in the drive-thru as well as in-store and look forward to working closely with our customers to elevate their brand experiences while accelerating their growth.”