Product Code Database
Cheryl Bachelder (born 1956) is an American businesswoman who was Interim CEO of Pier 1 Imports and was previously CEO of AFC Enterprises, the parent company of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, from 2007 to 2017. She was president of KFC from 2001 to 2003.
Bachelder put her career on hold several times to be a full-time mother and homemaker. She returned to business in 1995, working as senior vice president of marketing and product development for Domino's Pizza until 2000. In 2001, Bachelder left Domino's to join Yum! Brands as president of the international fried chicken restaurant chain KFC, formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken. Two years later, she was fired, based on what she herself describes as "'mediocre' performance".
In 2006, Bachelder joined the board of directors of AFC Enterprises, the owner of the restaurant chain that was then called Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits. The next year, the board elected her chief executive officer, a post she held until the chain's purchase in March 2017. At the time she was hired, Popeyes had shuffled through four CEOs in the previous seven years, and relationships with franchisees had become strained. Bachelder led Popeyes, which she rebranded as Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, through ten straight years of growth, with top line restaurant sales rising by 45 percent and restaurant operating profit more than doubled. Popeyes' stock rose in value from $15 to $79 per share, alongside consistent increases in same-store restaurant sales, during her tenure.
Bachelder authored a book, Dare to Serve: How To Drive Superior Results While Serving Others, about servant leadership, the management philosophy she claimed to follow during her years in business. She identifies as a Christian and is pro-life.
Categories: 1956 Births, Living People, Kelley School Of Business Alumni, American Women Chief Executives, American Chief Executives Of Food Industry Companies, 20th-century American Businesspeople, 20th-century American Businesswomen, 21st-century American Businesspeople, 21st-century American Businesswomen, American Christians
|
|
