August 24/Canton, Mass./PRNewswire -- Dunkin' Brands announced two key additions to the company's leadership team. Christine Deputy, senior vice president, Human Resources, and Karen Raskopf, senior vice president, Corporate Communications, bring a wealth of experience within the food and beverage industry and successful track records representing some of the world's most prominent retail brands. Each will report directly to Dunkin' Brands' chief executive officer Nigel Travis.

Deputy brings nearly 20 years of human resources experience to her new role on the Dunkin' Brands leadership team, where she will lead the team responsible for employee recruitment, compensation, benefits, leadership and development, policy development, and employee health and wellness at the corporate level. She will also develop tools and programs to attract, hire, train, develop and grow store managers and crewmembers at the retail level. She joins Dunkin' Brands from Starbucks, where she served in Hong Kong as vice president, Partner Resources, Asia Pacific Region. In more than a decade with Starbucks, her responsibilities included global staffing, talent management and field human resources. Prior to Starbucks, Deputy spent eight years with Thomas Cook based in Canada, the U.S. and England. She graduated with a degree in psychology from George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Raskopf brings more than 20 years of experience in the communications field to her new role on the Dunkin' Brands senior leadership team, where she will be responsible for all aspects of the company's global public relations, including internal and executive communications, marketing and crisis public relations, event management, corporate philanthropy and community relations. Prior to joining Dunkin' Brands, she spent the last 12 years as senior vice president, Corporate Communications for Blockbuster Inc. She also served as head of communications for 7-Eleven Inc., where she led all aspects of public relations for the international convenience store chain. Her background also includes leadership positions at Gannet Broadcasting. Raskopf is the recipient of several communications awards and is a featured speaker at numerous international conferences on best PR practices. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Dallas with a degree in English.

"Both Christine Deputy and Karen Raskopf are exceptional leaders who bring to Dunkin' Brands invaluable experiences at Fortune 500 multi-unit retailing chains with global presences and dynamic franchisee communities," said Dunkin' Brands' CEO Nigel Travis. "We are excited to welcome both to Dunkin' Brands as we look toward continuing our brands' growth and success."

From the August 31, 2009, Prepared Foods E-dition