NEW YORK - Burger King shook up its top ranks Friday ahead of its public share offering, naming John Chidsey as chief executive, while Greg Brenneman stepped down as chairman and CEO.
Chidsey, 43, who had been president and chief financial officer, will take the CEO job effective immediately.
Brian Swette, a current independent director, was named as non-executive chairman.
Ben Wells, 52, senior vice president and treasurer, has been promoted to chief financial officer.
Brenneman is returning to his private equity firm, TurnWorks Inc., to pursue business turnarounds but will remain as a "significant" shareholder in the fast-food company.
In a statement, he said that he, along with Burger King's private equity owners, "decided that the best time to transition leadership was prior to Burger King's initial public offering."
Burger King Holdings, the parent company, is owned by a private equity group comprised of Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Funds. It has 11,000 restaurants, including franchise operations, in more than 65 countries.
The company filed its initial public offering on February 16 in a bid to raise up to 400 million dollars.
04/07/2006 14:32 GMT