Wendy's appointed Tariq Hassan to the newly created role of chief marketing and customer growth officer, effective immediately. He reports to President and CEO Bob Wright and succeeds Lindsay Radkoski, U.S. CMO since 2023, who departs after a transition period.
Hassan previously served as U.S. chief marketing and customer experience officer at McDonald's, where he helped strengthen the marketing organization, drive digital and loyalty engagement, and launch culturally relevant campaigns.
He was central to the adult Happy Meal and Grimace's birthday campaigns, both of which moved engagement and sales together. McDonald's USA President Joe Erlinger described him as a "powerful force" in putting the brand at the center of culture. Hassan resigned from McDonald's early last year; before that he started on the agency side and held marketing roles at Petco and HP.
The numbers frame the hire. Wendy's is working through six straight quarters of same-store sales declines, including a 7% drop in Q2 2026.
Wright joined in May after more than five years as president and CEO at Potbelly, where he oversaw that brand's turnaround. He had already named demand-driving marketing as one of five areas Wendy's is acting on.
"Tariq's appointment is another meaningful step in returning Wendy's to profitable growth," Wright said, adding that Hassan "has demonstrated the impact that highly effective marketing, digital activation, menu innovation and culturally relevant brand engagement can have on restaurant performance and customer loyalty."
The most useful line came on the Q2 earnings call, where Wright described the problem in his own marketing:
"We need to sharpen marketing. We've been over reliant on a calendar of one-off promotions and collaborations rather than a consistent, relevant brand narrative grounded in our equity and what Wendy's stands for."
Wendy's made waves around the turn of the decade with brash social media marketing on the platform formerly known as Twitter. It has not consistently converted online buzz into real-world sales, despite collaborations like a 2025 effort around Netflix's Wednesday.
The Wendy's case revives an old question about social-first marketing: attention does not automatically convert into brand equity.
The problem with a calendar of one-off collaborations is not that individual activations fail. It is that nothing remains when each one ends. Next quarter needs a new partner, and the recognition cost is paid again from zero. A campaign sitting on a consistent narrative gets cheaper to explain with each installment.
CMO changes are routine; the diagnosis here is not. Wendy's is not saying its marketing was insufficient. It is saying the structure was wrong. Recent restaurant moves lean the same way — building repeatable touchpoints rather than isolated moments, as in Chipotle Put a Creator on the Kids' Menu — Aging Down the Gen Alpha Play.
A CMO hire is often the visible part of a wider reset, as it was in Panera Hires Cava's Marketing Chief as CMO — With a $7B Systemwide Target for 2028. The title itself carries the signal here: putting "customer growth" in the role name says this job will be measured on visit frequency and traffic, not awareness.
Tariq Hassan, formerly U.S. chief marketing and customer experience officer at McDonald's, where he led work including the adult Happy Meal and Grimace's birthday campaigns. He previously held marketing roles at Petco and HP.
Same-store sales have declined for six consecutive quarters, including a 7% drop in Q2 2026. CEO Bob Wright, who joined in May, named demand-driving marketing as one of five turnaround priorities.
Over-reliance on a calendar of one-off promotions and collaborations instead of a consistent brand narrative grounded in the brand's equity, per Wright on the Q2 earnings call.
It signals the role will be judged on visit frequency and traffic rather than awareness or social buzz, which is exactly the gap Wendy's says its previous approach left open.
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