Jim Cantalupo, McDonald's CEO died of a heart attack

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 20 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT


The CEO of McDonald's, Jim Cantalupo, died of a heart attack early on Monday.

This week was to be a celebration. Franchisees were to meet and celebrate the turnaround of the food chain by Jim Cantalupo.

Jim Cantalupo was 60 years old.

Jim Cantalupo had come out of retirement two years ago to head McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant company. He managed, during his 16 months in the company, to restore some of the goodwill the company used to have as plump customers and health groups criticised the company for contributing to the obesity explosion in the USA and many other countries.

His plan for the company was to get more business out of each restaurant rather than getting more business by just opening new outlets.

After years of falling sales, Jim Cantalupo managed to turn things round - in fact, for 11 consecutive months McDonalds in the USA experienced non-stop growth.

Andrew McKenna, who will assume Cantalupo's role as Chairman, said "Jim was a brilliant man who brought tremendous leadership, energy and passion to his job. He made an indelible mark on McDonald's system.''

Jim Cantalupo already had a heart condition. On Monday morning, 3 a.m. he was taken from his hotel at Orange County, Florida, USA, to hospital. Shortly afterwards, at 4.53 a.m. he was pronounced dead.

Jim Cantalupo worked on improving the company's nutritional image. He had just previously announced healthy Adult Happy Meals that included a salad, water and a pedometer (a gadget than measures how many steps you are taking, walking steps. It adds them up during the day).

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