Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Timeline
Board work, community service & volunteer engagement
Beyond the Boardroom
Generic

Douglas Fry

Miami,FL

Summary

Dynamic enterprise leader with a proven record of driving growth, transformation, and customer experience excellence across global CPG and hospitality brands. Brings deep P&L accountability at $10B+ scale, leading both corporate and franchisee model operations across 20,000+ locations and 7,000+ franchise partners. Recognized for architecting brand transformations, advancing franchise strategy to strengthen profitability, and delivering innovative customer experience models adopted worldwide. A trusted advisor to Boards, Founders and C-suites, known for aligning strategy with execution, inspiring franchisees and teams, and building high-performing cultures that deliver measurable enterprise value.

Overview

2023
2023
years of professional experience

Work History

President, North America

Subway Restaurants Global
01.2023 - 2025
  • Leadership and P&L responsibility of the largest region in the global Subway System, with almost $12B in Sales, 22,000 Restaurants and 7,100 franchisees with over 180,000 employees.
  • Executive Officer of North America's Marketing, Menu, Operations, and Development strategies, plans, execution, and results during a significant industry economic shift.
  • Member of the Global Executive team and led over 450 corporate team members with direct reports including Senior Vice President Operations, Senior Vice President Marketing, Senior Vice President Menu Design, Vice President Restaurant Development and Managing Director Canada; reported to the Global CEO.
  • Joined Subway as a member the ELT charged with the responsibility of readying the Brand for its' eventual sale in 2024 and transition to new P.E. owners.
  • Drove organizational change, streamlining structures and processes and vendor negotiations, resulting in a 10% system savings, in beverage alone, for franchisees and increased Corporate EBITDA on average of 8% per year.
  • Significantly improved US franchisee relations, through increased transparent communication, increased engagement through regional listening sessions, and forming a national elected franchisee board. Increased franchisee satisfaction scores by double digits in one year.
  • Represented the face of Subway, in multiple media outlets such as Good Morning America, Fox News, Yahoo Finance and print media such as QSR Magazine and Restaurant Business Magazine.

Managing Director, Canada

Subway Restaurants Global
01.2021 - 01.2023
  • Leader of the Canadian System, of 2,900 restaurants and 1,800 franchisees, introducing a new consumer centric strategy for growth and development, with positive impact to franchisee profitability and relations.
  • Led the growth and alignment of the Brand in Canada, leading the Global system with 9 quarters of consecutive sales and traffic growth and the highest franchisee satisfaction scores across regions.
  • Post COVID, built a senior leadership team and rapidly built and deployed a national field service team, while driving the business turnaround plan that laid the foundation for the Canadian business unit to become and sustain itself as a leading global market in the Subway system.

Corporate Senior Director, National Operations

McDonald's Canada
01.2012 - 01.2021
  • Assumed increasing levels of responsibility over the years, providing leadership in various areas of the business, leading a team of 40 talented members across 8 departments: Operations strategy, development and SOP; Operations Restaurant Technology; Service systems and procedures; Equipment management; Safety & Security; Guest Relations & Engagement; Restaurant Communications & Guest Experience Strategy; and Field Operations Deployment
  • Architected and lead a holistic Guest Experience & Hospitality strategy for the Canadian system of 1,600 restaurants and 90,000 crew. Deemed the largest behavioral, and operationally based change management strategy in Brand history, resulting in record-breaking results achieved across Guest Satisfaction, Speed, Guest Counts, Sales and Cash flow metrics during this time. Guided international markets as this strategic model was adopted and deployed globally.
  • Led the team responsible for the rapid COVID19 redesign of restaurant operations and functionality, in 2020, to meet the needs of multiple unique health authorities and municipalities across the country. These changes, rapidly achieved, enabled the system to remain open, mitigate losses, and outpace the competition by double digits in comp sales whilst growing market share and increasing franchisee cash flow in an unprecedented industry environment.
  • Global Circle of Excellence Award 2016, 2020
  • Canadian Cornerstone Award 2015

Vice President, Operations & Guest Experience

Cara Operations Limited (now Recipe)
01.2011 - 01.2012
  • Vice President, responsible for P&L leadership and operations of both Kelsey's & Montana's brands, consisting of 150 franchised (60%) and corporate (40%) restaurants, 6,000 corporate employees, and 10 direct reports, with a management team of 70 and annual sales over $450 million; and of the Milestone's brand's 48 corporate restaurants and 4,000 employees, two direct reports, with a management team of 50 and annuals sales of over $280 million.
  • Developed and executed the strategic plan for elevating the Guests' experience and operational efficiency, resulting in increased EBITDA through double digit sales growth and guest satisfaction, during a national recession.
  • Fostered Franchisee relationships, managed construction, and renovation approvals, and collaborated with Marketing and Supply chain to meet the brands' strategic plans.

Corporate Director, Strategic Sourcing

Cara Operations Limited (now Recipe)
01.2007 - 01.2011
  • During this period, Cara was a multi brand Restaurant leader in the Canadian marketplace, with over 800 restaurants and sales in excess of $1.5 Billion.
  • Led the team to build mutually beneficial, strategic vendor partnerships for F&B for all brands, with an annual purchasing spend of more than $500 Million.
  • Responsible for collaborating with the CEO, CFO and Brand Presidents to provide insight, market analysis, trends and direction for annual business plans. Successfully restructured the B2B strategy, consolidating vendor partners from >1000 to 200.
  • We delivered >$10 Million in savings and mitigated >$10 Million in price increases over a four-year period, achieving a significant cost benefit vs. the market.
  • Negotiation of contract terms and pricing; developed and ensured compliance to SLAs while maintaining positive, collaborative vendor relationships during severe commodity market fluctuation and foreign currency exchange instability.
  • Effectively collaborated across company divisions to implement projects focused on restaurant economics and efficiency: reducing labour, waste, and freight, without sacrificing the Guests' experience and driving increased profitability for restaurants.

Corporate Manager, Brand Sales & Marketing

Kraft Foodservice North America
1999 - 01.2007
  • Marketing Brand Manager, Beverages (2004-2007)
  • National Manager, Business Finance (2004)
  • National Manager, Training and Sales Operations (2003-2004)
  • Western Regional Account Manager (2002-2003)
  • Distributor Business Manager, Western Canada (2001-2002)
  • Senior Territory Manager, Western Canada (2000-2001)
  • Territory Manager, Vancouver/Whistler (1999-2000)

Education

Bachelor of Arts - Psychology & Political Science

University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario

Negotiating Complex Business Deals - Business Administration

Harvard Business School
Boston, Massachusetts

Skills

  • Enterprise P&L ownership & growth strategy
  • Multi-unit franchise & corporate model leadership
  • Brand transformation & guest experience innovation
  • Cultural & organizational transformation
  • Financial analysis, profitability & risk management
  • Operational excellence & digital innovation
  • Executive storytelling, board engagement & partnerships
  • Team building, leadership development & talent strategy

Timeline

President, North America

Subway Restaurants Global
01.2023 - 2025

Managing Director, Canada

Subway Restaurants Global
01.2021 - 01.2023

Corporate Senior Director, National Operations

McDonald's Canada
01.2012 - 01.2021

Vice President, Operations & Guest Experience

Cara Operations Limited (now Recipe)
01.2011 - 01.2012

Corporate Director, Strategic Sourcing

Cara Operations Limited (now Recipe)
01.2007 - 01.2011

Corporate Manager, Brand Sales & Marketing

Kraft Foodservice North America
1999 - 01.2007

Bachelor of Arts - Psychology & Political Science

University of Western Ontario

Negotiating Complex Business Deals - Business Administration

Harvard Business School

Board work, community service & volunteer engagement

  • Strategic Advisor, Brasa Peruvian Kitchen, 2025 - Present
  • Strategic Advisor, Medium Rare Restaurants, 2025 - Present
  • GenYouth, Board of Directors, 2024 - Present
  • Beaver Valley Ski Club, Board of Directors, 2022- Present
  • Independent Purchasing Co-Op, Board of Directors, 2024-2025
  • St.Lawrence Market Precinct, Board of Directors, 2021-2023
  • York Mills Hockey Club, Coach, 2018-2023
  • Brave Beginnings, Advisory Board Member, 2014-2020
  • Ronald McDonald House Charity - Toronto, 2012-2019

Beyond the Boardroom

Proud husband and father, born and raised in Vancouver, B.C., who loves exploring new cities like a local. Active skier, cyclist, tennis player, sailor, hockey player, golfer, and passionate cook who creates memorable, personalized, experiences for family and friends.

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