Burger King owner Restaurant Brands International on Monday named Duncan Fulton the company’s new chief corporate officer.
The new title is “effective immediately,” the company said.
Fulton will oversee strategic growth, brand and corporate communications, government and franchisee relations for the Oakville, Ontario-based owner of Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.
“Duncan has an impressive track record as a retail, agency and government executive,” RBI CEO Daniel Schwartz said in a statement. “His skills as a brand leader, digital innovator, communicator and his experience running a retail network and working closely with franchisees will be a great benefit to RBI and our growth agenda in the coming years.”
Fulton’s is the second newly created C-level title with RBI this year. In January, former CFO Josh Kobza was named chief technology officer, and Matt Dunnigan took over as CFO.
Fulton takes his position as the company has faced difficult relations with its Tim Hortons franchisees in Canada. In April, Schwartz vowed to improve the company’s public relations after blaming “dissident franchisees” for driving negative media attention toward the brand in Canada.
The media attention has been cited as a reason for Tim Hortons’ sales weakness in Canada in recent quarters.
“Even when things are going well, we don’t like to promote ourselves,” he said at the time. “We have not historically dedicated much time to media relations.”
Before RBI, Fulton worked with Canadian retailers FGL Sports and Canadian Tire Corp. He said he was attracted to Restaurant Brands International’s aggressive growth strategy.
“I have always been attracted to companies and organizations that have aggressive growth agendas and are prepared to move quickly to innovate and adapt to markets around them,” Fulton said in a statement.
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