McDonald’s

Steve was IT Director at McDonald’s from June 2002 to February 2007, with responsibility for both customer-facing and in-house technology across more than 3,500 restaurants in the United Kingdom and nine Northern European countries. His principal programmes were the replacement of the point-of-sale estate and the introduction of digital technology through drive-thru and in-store self-service kiosk solutions. These systems underpinned a change in how food was prepared: orders were sent straight to kitchen display screens, allowing restaurants to cook to order and to customise products. Steve led the IT department through this period. He set out a clear direction for the function and worked with fellow executives across the business to raise the standing of IT and realise its benefits.

The appointment shaped the direction of Steve’s subsequent career. It established both the operational scale at which the quick service restaurant sector functions and the factor that most often determines whether in-store technology succeeds, which is the support model behind it. MDIS Services, and later Acrelec and Theravada International, were each built in response to that observation.