Yum! Brands Names Tracy Skeans COO
Yum! Brands, Inc. promoted of Tracy Skeans to Chief Operating Officer. Skeans has served as Chief Transformation and People Officer since 2016, and her promotion to COO formalizes the expanded role she is already playing to drive cross-brand collaboration on operational execution, people capability and customer experience imperatives that will fuel same-store sales and net-new unit growth. Skeans will retain her current responsibilities as Chief People Officer and continue reporting to Yum! Brands Chief Executive Officer David Gibbs.
“Tracy has been an invaluable strategic partner to me and our global leadership team as we have navigated through some of the most pivotal milestones in our history, including our transformation to a pure play franchisor in 2019 and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic. Her breadth of experience and strong track record of results through people and executional excellence give the Yum! Brands Board of Directors and me great confidence that she will help us deliver strong performance across our brands and global franchise system in this fast-changing environment,” said Gibbs.
Skeans has an impressive tenure of business leadership since joining the company in 2000, and has expertise driving results at the powerful intersection of talent, culture, finance and strategy. Under her leadership as Chief Transformation and People Officer, in 2020 Yum! integrated The Habit Burger Grill and Heartstyles, a team member leadership development program designed to transform the employee and customer experience, and championed the Company’s Unlocking Opportunity Initiative. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Skeans’ cross-functional and operations leadership was critical in mobilizing Yum! and its brands to protect the health, safety and engagement of corporate and restaurant teams. In 2016, Skeans played a central leadership role in the Yum China spinoff and Yum! Brands’ multi-year transformation strategy to accelerate the Company’s growth by moving to a heavily franchised and more profitable business model – a strategy that was successfully completed in 2019.