Russell Creedy, CEO of Restaurant Brands, has been named Chief Executive of the Year at the Deloitte Top 200 Awards, recognised for his success in improving local operations while leading an international expansion into Australia and Hawaii.
“Restaurant Brands' ability to grow domestically while expanding overseas through new acquisitions has seen its value steadily increase in 2018,” said judging panel convenor and NZME business editor Fran O'Sullivan. “Creedy's leadership style has evolved over the years, and with a strong team in place and local operations performing well he's been able to spend more time on strategic thinking. This has enabled Restaurant Brands to make expansive – and thus far highly lucrative – moves into Australia and Hawaii, which will underpin ongoing growth for the company.”
Creedy said his leadership style has changed over the years, allowing him to take a more strategic view and allowing him to expand the company overseas.
“Certainly there was a bit of risk, but we took a very much measured approach. The Australian expansion was just looking for growth corridors and taking the opportunities as they arose… and just planning to be ready for them when they came up. Hawaii was the real stretch of our imagination: to get offshore and get into another currency, which has frankly worked out pretty darn well with the depreciation of the NZ dollar.”
Restaurant Brands has been so successful that it has been offered a $881.5 million takeover deal from Finaccess Capital, based in Mexico.
“I look at it as sitting on the edge of the pond as opposed to being inside the pond,” he said. “It's something I read a long time ago. You're on the edge of the pond so you can see the ripples and where they are travelling to, as opposed to being in it where the ripple happens to you.”
