June 3/Louisville, Ky./Business Wire -- Yum! Brands Inc. announced the appointment of Roger Eaton as president of KFC USA. He replaces Gregg Dedrick who has made a personal decision to leave by year's end after 20 years with the company so that he may pursue several outside business ventures and academic coursework. Rather than waiting until the end of the year, the company appointed Eaton to replace Dedrick now so that there is an orderly transition. Eaton will report directly to David C. Novak, Yum! Brands chairman and chief executive officer, and Dedrick will remain through a transition period until early 2009.

In his new role, Eaton will be responsible for KFC's $5.3 billion domestic business, which is predominantly franchised across 5,300 restaurants. For the last five months, Eaton has served as Yum! Brands chief operating and development officer, responsible for sharing global Operations Best Practices.

"I want to thank Gregg Dedrick for his outstanding service to YUM over the last 20 years, and for the significant contributions he has made to our business. He is a great friend, and he will be well-missed by all. At the same time, Roger Eaton is the perfect choice as KFC's new president. He is one of our very best leaders, with enormous talent, strategic thinking, energy, commitment and a stellar track record of consistent results in one of most developed markets in the world," said David Novak, chairman and CEO.

Eaton is an international restaurant industry veteran and has been with the company for 12 years. Prior to becoming Yum's COO, he served for seven years as senior vice president/managing director of Yum! Restaurants International South Pacific and Africa region (SOPAC). Earlier in his career, Eaton was regional operations director of KFC SOPAC, general manager of KFC New Zealand and finance director of KFC SOPAC. In each of those roles, Eaton achieved outstanding results. Under his leadership, the KFC business in Australia delivered 27 consecutive quarters of profitable same store sales growth through consistent product innovation and dramatic operations improvements. He also is a champion of people development and the YUM culture, having coached many successful YUM leaders today who have been relocated from Australia to assume senior leadership positions within the Company.

Emil Brolick, president of U.S. Brand-building, will now become chief operating officer, an executive staff role, overseeing YUM's Restaurant Excellence, Development, Express business and Quality Assurance. The leaders of each of these functions, along with Ben Butler, president of Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food, will report to Brolick. He will continue to oversee the Company's global Marketing Excellence and Marketing College. Brolick serves on the Yum! corporate executive staff, all of whom report to David Novak, as do the presidents of Yum! Restaurants International, Yum! China, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

"I am very gratified that we have an outstanding depth of talent and experience at YUM to seamlessly transition management responsibilities and grow next-generation leaders like Roger Eaton," Novak added.

From the June 9, 2008, Prepared Foods e-Flash