Wendy’s continues to make changes in the C-suite, on Monday naming former United Parcel Service (UPS) executive Kenneth Cook to be its new CFO.
Cook will join the company on Dec. 2. He will take over for Gunther Plosch, who has been Wendy’s CFO since 2016. Plosch will remain with Wendy’s through the end of the year.
It’s the latest in a series of executive changes at the Dublin, Ohio-based company since the arrival of CEO Kirk Tanner earlier in the year, amounting to an effective overhaul of the C-suite.
Wendy’s named new executives to oversee information technology, marketing and legal. The company also brought back an operating structure that had been eliminated in early 2023 in naming Abigail Pringle to be president of its U.S. market and E.J. Wunsch to oversee international.
Meanwhile, major Wendy’s investor and longtime chairman Nelson Peltz stepped aside in September, turning that position over to Arthur Winkleblack.
The company is now adding an executive with 20 years of experience in various finance roles. Cook had been head of financial planning and analysis with UPS and before that had been CFO for the company’s U.S. domestic segment.
Cook “will play a key role across our initiatives to increase revenue and expand margins as we enter the next phase of growth in the U.S. and around the globe,” Tanner said in a statement.
Tanner thanked Plosch “for his work to improve our system’s financial foundations and processes that have created a stronger organization and positioned us to build momentum.”
According to a federal securities filing, Plosch is being let go from Wendy’s “without cause,” which will enable him to receive severance payments.
Cook will receive a base salary of $600,000 per year and a sign-on bonus of $325,000 after he works with the company for 30 days. He will also receive a $300,000 equity bonus upon his start and is eligible to receive various bonuses, stock and other incentives, according to an SEC filing.
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