Yum Brands Adds 2 C-Suite Tech Positions

Yum Brands has hired Clay Johnson, 49, as the company’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, and promoted Gavin Felder, 40, to Chief Strategy Officer. These newly created leadership positions will partner with the global brand divisions to elevate the customer experience and accelerate global growth.

Yum! Brands, Inc. today announced that it has hired Clay Johnson as the company’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, effective October 15, 2019. Johnson will join the Yum! Brands Global Leadership Team and oversee the company’s global technology strategy, partnering with the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell divisions to ensure the company provides a best-in-class digital journey across mobile, online, delivery and restaurant operations. 

Previously, Johnson served as Executive Vice President and Enterprise Chief Information Officer for Walmart, and brings more than 20 years of technology leadership across FORTUNE 50 companies and industries, successfully driving digital transformation initiatives into all aspects of business. His appointment is effective October 15, 2019.

As Chief Strategy Officer, Felder will be responsible for developing Yum! Brands’ long-term corporate strategies and partnering with the global brand divisions to implement initiatives to unlock new sources of growth and disruptive innovation. 

Felder has served as KFC Division Chief Financial Officer for the last five years, overseeing strategy, digital and technology, financial planning, supply chain and IT security for the KFC business spanning over 23,000 restaurants across 135 countries. He will retain his current KFC Division Chief Financial Officer role, title and responsibilities through the end of 2019 while the Company conducts a search to identify a successor CFO for the Division. His appointment is effective December 1, 2019.

David Gibbs, Yum! Brands President and Chief Operating Officer and the company’s incoming Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2020, said “Clay’s insights into developing connected digital commerce capabilities and integrated enterprise solutions will be invaluable as we strengthen our business model with technology at the forefront. Gavin is a successful digital leader and proven growth strategist at KFC, our largest and most profitable global brand division.”

Johnson and Felder will report to Yum! Brands Chief Financial Officer Chris Turner.

“Clay has the deep knowledge and skills needed to oversee a cross-brand effort to fast-track our digital commerce capabilities, unlock value from data and advanced analytics and integrate cost-effective technology solutions to enhance restaurant operations and the customer experience. And Gavin’s outstanding strategic capabilities and global experience make him the perfect leader to help set our long-term strategies and drive collaboration across our brands to unlock innovation in our business model and operations,” said Turner. “This is an exciting time at Yum! because we have an incredible opportunity to leverage our massive scale and expand our digital and technology competencies in order to drive global same-store sales and net-new unit growth and improve franchise unit economics.”

Johnson most recently served as Chief Information Officer and head of Global Business Services for Walmart, where he was responsible for leading the Company’s enterprise information technology strategy, services, operations and cyber security. Under his leadership, Johnson played a key role in leading Walmart’s digital transformation and leveraging technology to increase speed, value and provide a better customer experience. He built innovation hubs in Dallas and Austin, Texas, to focus on emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine vision, machine learning, blockchain, big data and the "internet of things." With an emphasis on the customer journey, he moved Walmart’s technology organization to a product model with an agile way of working. He is well recognized in the industry for his ability to drive new innovation and was recently named CIO of the Year and one of the Most Influential CIOs in the industry.

Prior to Walmart, Johnson served as Chief Information Officer at General Electric (GE) Power where he had end-to-end responsibility for information technology, cyber security, data and digital transformation. Johnson previously held leadership roles at The Boeing Company and Dell. He started his career at FedEx as a software engineer. Johnson served five years in the United States Coast Guard, where he held numerous leadership positions. He holds an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in computer science engineering from the University of Texas.

Felder’s leadership has been key in accelerating KFC’s omnichannel strategy execution, providing multiple ordering channels and customer access points including delivery, Click & Collect mobile ordering and kiosks. Today, KFC offers delivery in more than 12,000 restaurants in over 90 countries. KFC has Click & Collect in over 10,000 restaurants and expects to offer it at more than 18,000 stores by the end of 2020.