TORONTO — RBI Inc. has announced leadership changes to support the company’s long-term growth outlook of reaching a minimum of 40,000 restaurants, $60 billion in system-wide sales and $3.2 billion in Adjusted Operating Income by 2028.
Sami Siddiqui has been appointed Chief Financial Officer, succeeding Matt Dunnigan who is leaving the company. Jeff Klein has been appointed president of Popeyes U.S. and Canada, succeeding Siddiqui who has led the brand for nearly four years. Thiago Santelmo has been appointed president of International, succeeding David Shear who will remain with the company for a year as an advisor and assist in the transition. The leadership changes are effective immediately and a new president of EMEA and Chief Marketing Officer for Popeyes will be named at a later date.
“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,” says Joshua Kobza, CEO of RBI Inc. “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 U.S. and Canada.”
Siddiqui has been at RBI for 11 years, including eight years as brand president for Popeyes in Miami, all of the brands in the Asia-Pacific region and Tim Hortons in Toronto. Under his leadership, Popeyes has achieved record levels of sales, restaurant growth and profitability, recently solidifying the brand as the number-2 chicken player in the U.S. Siddiqui initially joined the company as head of Finance and Investor Relations before becoming brand CFO for Tim Hortons and later Burger King.
Santelmo joined the company 11 years ago, focusing on growth in Latin America as general manager and then subsequently president for the region. He has also been a leader of the company’s growth in the EMEA region, focusing on new country entries, developing new master franchisee partnerships and has served as president of the region for the last two years.
Klein joined the Popeyes leadership team two years ago as Chief Marketing Officer and brings 25 years of experience in marketing and consumer insights. Previously, Klein was CMO for Little Caesars Pizza and spent 15 years at PepsiCo in senior marketing positions, including SVP and CMO for PepsiCo Foodservice. He’s known for driving product innovation and integrating brand marketing campaigns with strong operational execution.
