Costa Enterprises hosted the president of McDonald’s USA, Chris Kempczinski, in September at their Port St. Joe restaurant, located at 115 US Highway 98. During the visit, Costa Enterprises recognized Kempczinski and other McDonald’s corporate staff who were visiting the location in honor of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Michael approaching.
This particular location was directly impacted by the storm in addition to 15 other McDonald’s locations owned by Costa Enterprises. It was important to bring the corporate members into the store to see the improvements and strong staff bond this location has built over the past year.
“It was an honor to have Mr. Kempczinski in the store today,” said David Costa, CEO of Costa Enterprises. “We gave him a behind the scenes tour, had lunch and most importantly we showed him the heart and values of the Costa Enterprises company.
As president, Kempczinski is responsible for the business operations of more than 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the United States, according to the McDonald’s website. Most recently, Chris oversaw strategy, planning and new concept innovation for the McDonald’s global business. In that role, he served the business units and franchises by identifying new ideas and best practices to accelerate their growth and grow the overall value of the system. Before joining McDonald’s, Kempczinski was Executive Vice President of growth initiatives at McDonald’s and President of Kraft International.
Costa Enterprises took the opportunity during the president’s visit to gift him with a Costa Coin Box that was engraved with his name, title and date to commemorate the occasion. Inside was a coin containing the state of Florida and the inscription “The ‘Never’ Forgotten Coast – Hurricane Michael 10/10/18 – Unity gives us strength. From all the men and woman of the Costa Family Organization”. Costa Enterprises also awarded the coin box to the other corporate McDonald’s staff members in attendance including Karen Garcia, US Vice President of Franchise Relations; Joe Kowal, Senior Director Operations Officer; Harish Ramalingam, US Field Vice President; Spero Droulias, Chief Financial Officer; Charlie Strong, Zone President West.
During the visit, the Costa family also recognized Jacqueline Wells, executive assistant, as the most recent recipient of the Archways to Opportunity Program, a scholarship fund that was created to encourage higher education for Costa Enterprises McDonald’s staff. To date, the Archways for Opportunity program has put 55 people through school and awarded over $100,000 in scholarship money to Costa employees.