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Daniel Schwartz

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Daniel S. Schwartz
Born
Long Island, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationThe Wheatley School; Cornell University (B.S., applied economics and management)
OccupationInvestor, businessman
Company3G Capital; Restaurant Brands International
TitleCo-Managing Partner, 3G Capital

Daniel S. Schwartz (born 1981) is an American businessman and co-managing partner of 3G Capital, the private investment firm that controls Restaurant Brands International (RBI), Kraft Heinz, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Hunter Douglas and Skechers.[1][2] He served as chief executive officer of Burger King Worldwide and its successor, Restaurant Brands International, from June 2013 to January 2019, a period in which he was, at age thirty-two, one of the youngest chief executives of a major restaurant company.[3][4]

Schwartz joined 3G Capital in 2005 and worked on the firm's 2010 acquisition of Burger King Holdings, Inc., after which he moved from finance into operations, serving as the company's deputy chief financial officer, chief financial officer and chief operating officer before becoming chief executive in 2013.[5] As chief executive he directed the 2014 combination of Burger King with the Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons that created Restaurant Brands International, and the company's 2017 acquisition of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.[6][7]

In January 2019 Schwartz transitioned from chief executive to the newly created role of Executive Chairman and to Co-Chairman of the RBI board alongside 3G Capital co-founder Alexandre Behring, a board role he held until January 2023.[8][9] He remains an independent director of RBI, a seat he has held continuously since the company's formation in December 2014, and was re-elected at the company's June 2026 annual meeting.[9][10] As co-managing partner of 3G Capital alongside Behring, Schwartz has since led or co-led the firm's acquisitions of the window-coverings manufacturer Hunter Douglas Group, completed in 2022, and the footwear company Skechers, completed in September 2025, and he sits on the boards of both.[11][12][9]

In 2017 Fortune included Schwartz in its "40 Under 40" ranking of business leaders, where he placed ninth, having first appeared on the list in 2015.[13]

Early life and education

Schwartz was raised on Long Island, New York.[3] He has said that, growing up, he assumed he would follow his father into dentistry or his uncles into medicine, rather than business.[3] He attended The Wheatley School in the hamlet of Old Westbury, where he was a member of the class of 1998, played basketball and worked as a math tutor, advertising his tutoring services through a paid listing in a local newspaper.[14][3]

He enrolled at Cornell University expecting to study medicine, but a first-year finance course changed his direction; he subsequently read widely on business and developed a particular interest in the leveraged buyouts of the 1980s.[3] At Cornell he made the dean's list and, in 2001, graduated with a bachelor's degree in applied economics and management, completing the degree in three years rather than the usual four.[14] While at Cornell he held several finance internships.[3] He remains involved with his alma mater as a member of the Undergraduate Program Advisory Council of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.[15]

Career

Credit Suisse and recruitment to 3G Capital (2001 to 2005)

After graduating from Cornell, Schwartz took a job in mergers and acquisitions at Credit Suisse.[3] He has said a colleague there gave him career advice he has since repeated: "You have to work really, really hard to put yourself in a position to get lucky."[3] In 2005, at the age of twenty-four, he was recruited to 3G Capital, the Brazilian-founded investment firm already known for building the brewing group that became Anheuser-Busch InBev and for its role as an investing partner of Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett.[3][15] He was promoted to partner in 2008.[15]

Deputy chief financial officer, chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Burger King (2010 to 2013)

In September 2010, 3G Capital agreed to acquire Burger King Holdings, Inc. for $24.00 per share in cash, a transaction the companies valued at $4.0 billion including the assumption of Burger King's outstanding debt and that represented a 46 percent premium to Burger King's share price before the deal was rumored.[16] Schwartz, who had identified Burger King as an acquisition target, has said his reasoning was that the brand was worth considerably more than the business's trading value: the chain had $14 billion in system-wide sales and operated in eighty countries, yet was valued at only a few billion dollars compared with the roughly $60 billion market capitalisation of McDonald's at the time.[3]

Schwartz joined Burger King Holdings in October 2010 as executive vice president and deputy chief financial officer, becoming chief financial officer in January 2011 and chief operating officer in March 2013.[17][9] He later said that, at thirty, with no prior operating experience inside a company, he was "a little terrified" to take on the finance role.[3]

Chief executive officer of Burger King (2013 to 2014)

Schwartz became chief executive of Burger King Worldwide in June 2013 at the age of thirty-two, making him one of the youngest chief executives of a major restaurant company.[3] To understand why Burger King's sales had stagnated while chains such as Chipotle and Panera Bread were growing quickly, he split his time in his early months as chief executive between the corporate office and Burger King's own kitchens, working the broiler, assembling sandwiches, taking orders, scrubbing toilets and washing floors at a Miami restaurant.[3] He concluded that the menu had become too large and confusing for crews to execute consistently and, as one of his first acts as chief executive, cut the menu substantially and tightened the process for approving new products.[3] He also cut corporate costs he judged unnecessary, selling the company's corporate jet, ending an annual company event held at a chateau in Italy that had cost roughly $1 million a year, and closing the executive office floor that employees had nicknamed "Mahogany Row".[3] Staff later found, and removed, several years' worth of hoarded office supplies that had accumulated under the prior cost culture.[3]

Formation of Restaurant Brands International (2014)

On 26 August 2014, Burger King Worldwide and Tim Hortons Inc. announced a merger agreement under which the two chains would combine under a new, Ontario-incorporated parent company.[18] Under the agreement, Tim Hortons shareholders could elect to receive C$65.50 in cash plus 0.8025 of a share in the new company for each Tim Hortons share, or alternative all-cash or all-stock elections subject to proration, representing a 39 percent premium to Tim Hortons' thirty-day volume-weighted average price; Burger King shareholders received 0.99 of a share in the new parent plus 0.01 of a limited partnership unit for each Burger King share.[18] The transaction was financed in part through a $9.5 billion debt commitment from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo and a $3 billion investment in preferred equity by Berkshire Hathaway.[19]

The merger drew criticism in the United States as a corporate "tax inversion", discussed further below. The deal closed on 12 December 2014, creating Restaurant Brands International Inc., a company with combined system-wide sales of roughly $23 billion that the companies described as the world's third-largest quick-service restaurant business.[18][19] Schwartz became Group Chief Executive Officer of the combined company, with 3G Capital retaining an approximately 51 percent ownership stake, and said of the deal: "We are excited to build on this progress as we continue to expand Burger King around the world and look forward to working with and learning from Tim Hortons as we together create the world's leading global restaurant business."[18]

Chief executive officer of Restaurant Brands International (2014 to 2019)

As chief executive of the combined company, Schwartz continued the international expansion and cost discipline he had pursued at Burger King alone. Under his tenure, Burger King's worldwide restaurant count grew to 16,768 locations, and the company opened 735 new Burger King restaurants in 2016 alone.[3] The pace of restaurant renovation increased from roughly 10 percent of the system five years earlier to more than 60 percent by 2017.[3] Combined Burger King system-wide sales grew from about $14 billion at the time of the 2010 buyout to $18.2 billion in 2016.[3] Average per-restaurant sales at Burger King rose from $1.1 million to $1.3 million during his tenure, narrowing, but not closing, the gap with McDonald's, whose restaurants averaged about $2.5 million in sales over the same period.[3] Business Insider reported in 2017 that Burger King's market value, estimated at about $9 billion when Schwartz became chief executive in 2013, had grown to about $27 billion for the combined Restaurant Brands International, with the stock price rising more than 35 percent in the preceding year.[3]

On 21 February 2017, Restaurant Brands International announced its acquisition of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. for $79.00 per share in cash, a transaction valued at $1.8 billion and representing a 27 percent premium to Popeyes' thirty-day volume-weighted average share price.[20] Popeyes operated more than 2,600 restaurants worldwide at the time of the deal, which closed in early April 2017.[20] Schwartz said Popeyes was "a powerful brand with a rich Louisiana heritage that resonates with guests around the world" and cited "strong U.S. and international prospects for growth".[20]

For 2018, his final full year as chief executive, Schwartz received total compensation of $18,782,877, consisting of an $800,000 base salary, $16,339,473 in stock awards (the bulk of it performance-based restricted share units), $1,556,309 in non-equity incentive compensation and $87,094 in other benefits. His reported total compensation was $4,152,266 for 2017 and $6,173,993 for 2016, with his base salary unchanged at $800,000 in each of those years.[21]

Transition to Executive Chairman and Co-Chairman (2019)

On 23 January 2019, Restaurant Brands International announced that Schwartz would transition from chief executive to a newly created role of Executive Chairman, with José E. Cil, until then President of Burger King, succeeding him as chief executive effective immediately.[22] Schwartz also became Co-Chairman of the RBI board alongside 3G Capital co-founder Alexandre Behring.[22] The company's 2019 proxy statement listed him as Executive Chairman and as one of the company's named executive officers for 2018, while the company's 2026 proxy statement records his service as Executive Chairman as having run from January to June 2019, after which he continued solely as a non-executive Co-Chairman of the board.[21][9] He served as Co-Chairman of the RBI board until January 2023, and he continues to serve as an independent director of the company, a board seat he has held continuously since its formation in December 2014.[9] At RBI's annual meeting in June 2026, his re-election to the board was approved by more than 99 percent of votes cast.[10]

Co-managing partner of 3G Capital (2019 to present)

Following his transition from RBI's day-to-day management, Schwartz became co-managing partner of 3G Capital alongside Behring, a position he continues to hold.[23][9] In that role he has been involved in 3G Capital's subsequent acquisitions outside the restaurant industry.

On 3 January 2022, 3G Capital announced an agreement to acquire a controlling interest in Hunter Douglas Group, the privately held window-coverings and architectural products manufacturer, in a transaction valued at $7.1 billion on an enterprise basis, with 3G Capital paying €175.00 per ordinary share, a 73 percent premium to Hunter Douglas' closing share price before the announcement; the Sonnenberg family, Hunter Douglas' founding family, retained a 25 percent stake.[11] Schwartz said at the time: "3G Capital has deep respect for Hunter Douglas, its diverse portfolio of brands and the steadfast leadership of the Sonnenberg family over three generations."[11] The acquisition closed in February 2022, and Schwartz has served as a director of Hunter Douglas Group since that year.[9]

On 5 May 2025, Skechers U.S.A., Inc. announced it had agreed to be acquired by 3G Capital for $63.00 per share in cash, with an alternative mixed election of $57.00 in cash plus one unit in the acquiring entity; the per-share cash price represented a premium of about 30 percent to Skechers' fifteen-day volume-weighted average share price, and the transaction was reported at the time to value the company at approximately $9.4 billion.[12][24][25] The press release announcing the deal quoted Behring and Schwartz jointly: "We are thrilled to be partnering with Skechers and look forward to working with an entrepreneur of Robert's caliber and the talented Skechers team... Our team at 3G Capital is built to partner with companies like Skechers."[12] Skechers' existing management, led by founder Robert Greenberg, remained in place, and the company kept its Manhattan Beach, California headquarters.[12][25] The acquisition closed on 12 September 2025, and Skechers was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and became a privately held company.[26] Schwartz has served as a director of Skechers since the deal closed in 2025.[9]

Restaurant Brands International, under Cil's leadership, also expanded during this period: in November 2021 it agreed to acquire the sandwich chain Firehouse Subs for $1.0 billion in cash, a deal Cil said would let RBI "accelerate U.S. and international growth" at the chain.[27]

Leadership and management style

Schwartz has described his approach as "management by walking around", saying: "I believe in MWA... so I spend as much time as possible traveling and visiting franchise partners. You only learn by walking around and meeting people."[3] He said in 2017 that he effectively lived on commercial flights, and that he wore a uniform of branded shirts to match whichever brand he was visiting: a denim shirt embroidered with the Burger King insignia in the United States, and a similar shirt bearing the Tim Hortons name in Canada, with plans to add a Popeyes shirt to the rotation.[3]

His cost discipline, which included selling Burger King's corporate jet and ending a costly annual event in Italy, reflected what he described as 3G Capital's "ownership culture": a philosophy that employees should treat company spending as if it were their own and "always put the business before themselves".[3] To instill that culture, he required corporate staff to spend time working in Burger King restaurants, as he had done himself after becoming chief executive, and said he created faster paths to promotion for employees who adopted the approach.[3] After an initial period of aggressive menu-cutting and cost reduction, he said Burger King shifted toward a "more measured" approach to new product development, crediting limited-time items such as Chicken Fries and Mac N' Cheetos with helping to rebuild sales.[3]

Major deals and strategic decisions

The major transactions with which Schwartz has been associated, either as an operating executive or as 3G Capital's co-managing partner, include:

  • The $4.0 billion acquisition of Burger King Holdings by 3G Capital in 2010, on which Schwartz worked prior to joining the company's management.[16]
  • The 2014 combination of Burger King and Tim Hortons to form Restaurant Brands International, structured with cash-and-stock consideration for Tim Hortons shareholders and financed in part by $9.5 billion in debt commitments and a $3 billion Berkshire Hathaway preferred equity investment.[18][19]
  • The $1.8 billion acquisition of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in 2017.[20]
  • The $1.0 billion acquisition of Firehouse Subs by Restaurant Brands International in 2021, undertaken after Schwartz's departure from executive management but during his continued service as Co-Chairman of RBI's board.[27]
  • 3G Capital's $7.1 billion acquisition of a controlling interest in Hunter Douglas Group, completed in 2022.[11]
  • 3G Capital's approximately $9.4 billion acquisition of Skechers, completed in September 2025.[12][24]

Financial and market performance

During Schwartz's six years as chief executive, Burger King's and then Restaurant Brands International's combined system-wide sales grew from roughly $14 billion to $18.2 billion, and the restaurant system grew to 16,768 locations.[3] Business Insider estimated in 2017 that the enterprise's market value had grown from about $9 billion when Schwartz took over in 2013 to about $27 billion, with the stock price up more than 35 percent in the year before the article was published.[3]

As of 31 March 2019, Schwartz beneficially owned 1,950,392 RBI common shares and 137,996 partnership exchangeable units, a total of 2,088,388 shares, according to the company's proxy statement.[21] As a non-executive director in 2025, he received $100,000 in total compensation, paid entirely in deferred restricted share units under RBI's director compensation program, under which all non-management directors elected to forgo cash fees in favour of RSUs valued at twice the forgone amount.[9] As of 31 December 2025, he held 13,828 outstanding RSUs as a director, a portion of which were held through an entity called Miami Restaurant Holdings, LLC, over which he holds voting and dispositive power.[9]

Board memberships and outside roles

Schwartz has served as a director of Restaurant Brands International since the company's formation in December 2014, including as Co-Chairman from January 2019 to January 2023, and continues to serve as an independent director.[9] He has served as a director of Hunter Douglas Group since 2022 and as a director of Skechers since 2025, both following 3G Capital's acquisitions of those companies.[9] He is also a member of the Undergraduate Program Advisory Council of Cornell University's Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.[15]

Controversies

The 2014 merger of Burger King and Tim Hortons drew public criticism in the United States as a corporate tax inversion, a transaction structure in which a U.S. company reorganizes under a foreign parent, often to reduce its U.S. tax liability.[28] U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown publicly urged consumers to patronize Ohio-based competitors instead of Burger King, and the company faced consumer boycott threats on social media over the deal.[28] Schwartz responded on Facebook, writing: "We hear you. We're not moving, we're just growing and finding ways to serve you better."[29] He said publicly that "the decision to create a new global [quick service restaurant] leader with Tim Hortons is not tax-driven; it's about global growth for both brands," that Burger King Corporation would "continue to pay all of our federal, state and local U.S. taxes," and that he did not expect "meaningful tax savings or any meaningful changes in our tax rate" as a result of the deal.[29]

A PolitiFact fact-check of the company's public statements found them "Half True": while Burger King's operating headquarters remained in Miami as the company said, the new parent company's legal domicile moved to Canada, meaning the combined company would owe U.S. tax only on its domestically earned profits rather than its worldwide income, a structural change PolitiFact said the company's public statements did not make clear.[28] Burger King's effective tax rate of 27.5 percent in 2013 was close to Tim Hortons' 26.8 percent rate that year, a similarity Schwartz cited in arguing the deal was not primarily tax-motivated.[28]

Personal life

As of 2017, Schwartz's home was in Miami, Florida, where he lived with his wife and two young daughters, although he said at the time that he spent most of his time traveling for work.[3] RBI's 2026 proxy statement lists his residence as Florida, United States.[9]

Recognition

Schwartz first appeared on Fortune's "40 Under 40" list of business leaders in 2015 and was included again in 2017, when he was ranked ninth.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ <ref>"3G Capital".3G Capital.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  2. ↑ <ref>"Restaurant Brands International Inc. Notice of 2026 Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.23 April 2026.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 3.28 <ref>Peterson, Hayley."How Wall Street prodigy Daniel Schwartz saved Burger King".12 June 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  4. ↑ <ref>"Form 8-K: Chief Executive Officer Transition and Designation of Executive Chairman".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.23 January 2019.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  5. ↑ <ref>"Daniel Schwartz, Director".Restaurant Brands International.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  6. ↑ <ref>"World's Third Largest Quick Service Restaurant Company Launched with Two Iconic and Independent Brands: Tim Hortons and Burger King".Restaurant Brands International.12 December 2014.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  7. ↑ <ref>"Restaurant Brands International Inc. Agrees to Acquire Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen".PR Newswire.21 February 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  8. ↑ <ref>"Form 8-K: Chief Executive Officer Transition and Designation of Executive Chairman".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.23 January 2019.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  9. ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 <ref>"Restaurant Brands International Inc. Notice of 2026 Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.23 April 2026.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 <ref>"Form 8-K: Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.3 June 2026.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 <ref>"3G Capital Acquires Controlling Interest of Hunter Douglas".CEPro.3 January 2022.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 <ref>"Skechers Agrees to be Acquired by 3G Capital (Exhibit 99.1)".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.5 May 2025.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 <ref>"Daniel Schwartz: 40 Under 40 2017".Fortune.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 <ref>"Wheatley Alumni Association Newsletter, September 2016".Wheatley Alumni Association.September 2016.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 <ref>"Daniel Schwartz".Greater Miami Jewish Federation.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 <ref>"Burger King Holdings, Inc. To Be Acquired By 3G Capital".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1).2 September 2010.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  17. ↑ <ref>"Daniel Schwartz, Director".Restaurant Brands International.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 <ref>"World's Third Largest Quick Service Restaurant Company Launched with Two Iconic and Independent Brands: Tim Hortons and Burger King".Restaurant Brands International.12 December 2014.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 <ref>"Restaurant Brands International Inc. Form 8-K (Completion of Transactions)".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.17 December 2014.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 <ref>"Restaurant Brands International Inc. Agrees to Acquire Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen".PR Newswire.21 February 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 <ref>"Restaurant Brands International Inc. Notice of 2019 Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.30 April 2019.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 <ref>"Form 8-K: Chief Executive Officer Transition and Designation of Executive Chairman".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.23 January 2019.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  23. ↑ <ref>"3G Capital".3G Capital.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 <ref>"Skechers to Go Private in $9.4B Deal With 3G Capital".Manufacturing Today.6 May 2025.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 <ref>"Skechers to go private following $9.4B deal with 3G Capital".Fox Business.5 May 2025.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  26. ↑ <ref>"Skechers U.S.A., Inc. Form 8-K (Completion of Merger)".U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.12 September 2025.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 <ref>"Restaurant Brands International Inc. to Acquire Firehouse Subs".Restaurant Brands International.15 November 2021.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 <ref>"Burger King says it's 'not moving' and 'will continue to pay all' of its taxes".PolitiFact.29 August 2014.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 <ref>"Burger King CEO Says Merger Not Tax Driven".Fox Business.26 August 2014.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
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