Leadership in Challenging Times: A Conversation with Chris Kempczinski

Sustaining Capitalism

2022 Honorees

On leading during COVID-19: “…as you would imagine, in a system like ours, where you have not just the company people, but you have a network of suppliers, you have a network of franchisees, you get bombarded with a lot of questions that come in from everybody around the world. And one of the things that I tried to do in the very beginning was to just outline some principles of how we were going to look at it. So I don't have all the answers…But I am going to outline for everybody some principles about how we're going to approach these issues.”

So says Chris Kempczinski, President and CEO of McDonald’s Corporation, in this interview with Dr. Lori Esposito Murray, President of the Committee for Economic Development, the public policy center of The Conference Board (CED).

The CED discussion series, Leadership in Challenging Times, interviews business leaders about the unprecedented challenges facing the nation and how they are helping chart a path forward for both their companies and communities in which they operate. Listen as Kempczinski talks to Dr. Murray about human-centric leadership, how to keep stakeholders resilient in times of crisis, the importance of defining your company purpose, engaging in the public square, and more.