LONDON (Brand Republic) - UK drinks group and fast food chain owner Diageo has poached John Dasburg, president and chief executive officer of Northwest Airlines, to head up Burger King.
It is expected that Dasburg’s appointment as chairman and chief executive of the chain is the first step in a process leading to its ultimate sale for around $3bn (£2.1bn).
Dasburg will join in April and is the first CEO to be appointed since Dennis Malamatinas left Burger King to run Priceline.com’s European operations in June. Dasburg’s role at Northwest will be split between current chief operating officer Richard Anderson and chief corporate officer Douglas Steenland.
Since Malamatinas’ departure, Burger King has been run by Colin Storm, a former Guinness executive. Last year, it reported sales of $11.4bn (£7.9bn) but is expected to show a fall in comparable store sales of about 2% when it announces its results on Thursday.
In June, Diageo also announced that it would seek an initial public offering of 20% of Burger King within 12 months, and would aim to spin off the rest of its fast food subsidiary by the end of 2002.
Diageo has a total of 11,300 restaurants, 8,300 of which are based in the US.