TORONTO — Restaurant Brands International has shuffled its leadership team to support its long-term growth plans.
The company has promoted Sami Siddiqui from president of Popeyes United States and Canada to chief financial officer. Siddiqui succeeds Matt Dunnigan who is leaving the company.
Siddiqui has been at the company for approximately 11 years. Before he was president of Popeyes, he was president Asia-Pacific for Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes. He joined the company as its head of finance and investor relations before being named brand CFO for Tim Hortons and then Burger King.
Before his tenure with the company, Siddiqui was with Google and The Blackstone Group.
Jeff Klein has been elevated from chief marketing officer to Siddiqui’s previous position of president Popeyes US and Canada. Klein has been with the company since June 2022.
Before joining the company, Klein was most recently CMO at Little Caesars Pizza and previously senior vice president, CMO global foodservice at PepsiCo, Inc.
Thiago Santelmo has been named president of international and succeeds David Shear. Shear will remain with the company for a year as an advisor and assist in the transition, the company said.
Santelmo joined the company in 2013 as senior manager, finance and supply chain for Latin America and Caribbean. He also has held such positions at the company as VP of global business development, head of finance and business development EMEA, president Latin America and the Caribbean, and president EMEA.
Before RBI, Santelmo was most recently in corporate finance at McKinsey & Co.
The company said it will name a new president of EMEA and CMO for Popeyes at a later time.
"Sami, Thiago and Jeff are proven, valuable leaders in the company, and I'm looking forward to working with them as we deliver on our next phase of growth," said Josh Kobza, chief executive officer for RBI International. "Sami has deep finance and operational experience, which makes him a great partner to our presidents as we deliver on our growth plans across the company. Thiago has spent his career building master franchisee relationships and working closely with them to develop new markets. This will serve him well as we accelerate net restaurant growth internationally in the coming years. Jeff has two decades of marketing and consumer insight experience with large, well-known brands and will bring this guest-centered approach to making Popeyes 'Easy to Love' across the US and Canada."
