Wendy’s is reorganizing marketing around a broader assignment: customer growth.
The company named Tariq Hassan chief marketing and customer growth officer effective August 24. It is a newly created position that reports to President and CEO Bob Wright and sits on Wendy’s senior leadership team.
Hassan previously served as McDonald’s U.S. chief marketing and customer experience officer. Wendy’s said his new responsibilities include marketing, customer growth, digital engagement and customer-experience strategy. Lindsay Radkoski, Wendy’s U.S. chief marketing officer since 2024, will leave after a transition period.
The change matters because the title connects disciplines that restaurant companies often manage separately. Advertising can create attention, but growth also depends on menu relevance, loyalty participation, ordering technology and the experience customers receive after a campaign brings them in.
It also raises the standard by which the appointment should be judged. A customer-growth executive is responsible for more than memorable creative work. Wendy’s will need to connect marketing decisions to visits, frequency, digital behavior and franchisee economics while it pursues a broader turnaround.
The company presented Hassan’s appointment as a step toward returning Wendy’s to profitable growth. That is management’s stated objective, not a guaranteed outcome. No new financial target or timetable was announced with the hire.
What happens next will be visible in the work: how Wendy’s positions its food, uses loyalty and digital channels, and translates customer insight into restaurant-level demand. The new title makes those pieces one leadership mandate.