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Greg Creed

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Greg Creed
Bornc. 1957
Australia
NationalityAustralian
EducationQueensland University of Technology (Bachelor of Business)
OccupationBusiness executive, company director
CompanyYum! Brands
TitleChief Executive Officer of Yum! Brands (2015 to 2019)
SpouseCarolyn Creed

Greg Creed (born c. 1957) is an Australian business executive who was Chief Executive Officer of Yum! Brands, the franchisor of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurant chains, from January 1, 2015 until his retirement on December 31, 2019. Before taking the top job at the company he led Taco Bell, first as its chief marketing officer from 2001, then as president and chief concept officer from December 2006, and as chief executive from 2011 to 2014.[1][2]

Raised in Brisbane, Creed spent the first 17 years of his career at Unilever in Australia, London and New York, where he worked on detergents and bar soaps and later ran the company's personal washing category in the United States.[3] He moved to PepsiCo's restaurant business in 1994 as a marketer for KFC in Australia and New Zealand, and stayed with that business through its 1997 spin-off from PepsiCo as Tricon Global Restaurants and its renaming as Yum! Brands.[4] At Taco Bell he was associated with the "Think Outside the Bun" campaign, the Doritos Locos Tacos product line and the chain's move into breakfast.[5]

As chief executive, Creed oversaw the October 31, 2016 separation of the company's China business into the independently listed Yum China Holdings, and a three-year plan to make the remaining company "more focused, franchised and efficient". Under it, franchisees came to operate about 98 percent of the system's restaurants, against 77 percent shortly before the spin-off.[6][7] He was succeeded by David Gibbs, stayed on the board until May 2020, and advised the company part-time through 2020.[8][2]

After retiring, Creed founded Creed UnCo, a consulting business focused on culture and leadership, brand building and franchising, and co-wrote the 2021 book R.E.D. Marketing: The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands with Ken Muench.[8][9] As of November 2026 he is the independent Presiding Director of Whirlpool Corporation and a director of Delta Air Lines and Aramark. Shareholders of all three companies re-elected him in 2026.[10][11][12][13]

Early life and education

Creed grew up in Australia. A family photograph published by Bloomberg Businessweek shows him at age two with his parents there in 1959.[3] He attended MacGregor State High School in Brisbane, finishing in 1974, and then Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, where he finished in 1977.[3] He holds a Bachelor of Business (Management) degree with an emphasis in marketing from the university.[14] He told Bloomberg Businessweek that he had "almost became an army officer" after serving in the Army Cadets, which he likened to the American ROTC, but decided against it because he could not study business and serve in the reserves at the same time.[3] He also recalled his mother telling him that a preschool teacher had said: "He may not be the brightest kid in the class, but if he finds his passion, he's going to be very successful."[3]

Creed's exact date of birth has not been published. Company filings gave his age as 48 in December 2005, 56 in May 2014 and 62 in August 2019.[15][5][7]

Career

Unilever, 1977 to 1994

Creed joined Unilever in Australia straight from university. From 1977 to 1986 he was a brand manager for detergents and then marketing manager for bar soaps and fabric softeners at Unilever Australia. He spent 1987 and 1988 in London as the company's detergents coordinator, and from 1989 to 1994 was category director for personal washing at Unilever in New York.[3] According to AACSB International, he became category director of Lever Brothers and led the Dove brand globally, taking it outside North America into 19 countries and setting up a new manufacturing plant in Germany. He also received the Unilever chairman's award for best product launch for introducing the Lever 2000 soap brand.[4]

Creed later said he had asked his managers to rename the bar soaps unit "personal wash" so that it would not be defined by a single product format. He also said that he "did not do" the later Dove "Real Women" campaign, which came after his time on the brand.[16] Speaking of his years there, he told Bloomberg Businessweek: "In a big company like Unilever, there are the growing brands and the ones everyone thinks are ready for the trash heap. If you can turn those around, you make a name for yourself."[3]

KFC and Pizza Hut in Australia, 1994 to 2001

In July 1994 Creed joined PepsiCo as director of marketing for KFC in Australia and New Zealand.[4] After PepsiCo spun off its restaurant businesses as Tricon Global Restaurants in 1997, Pizza Hut and later Taco Bell were added to his responsibilities.[4][3] From 1997 to 2001 he served as chief marketing officer and, for a period, interim general manager of the KFC and Pizza Hut businesses in Australia.[15] AACSB International credits him with seven consecutive years of sales and profit growth in that role, and he received the company's chairman's award for strategic brand innovation.[4]

Chief Marketing Officer, Taco Bell, 2001 to 2005

In 2001 Creed moved to the United States as chief marketing officer of Taco Bell.[15] The chain had been losing transactions for several years. Creed later said Taco Bell had "seven years of transactional declines in the late nineties" and that he decided its real competitor was McDonald's rather than other Mexican-style chains: "Instead of pretending we're in the Mexican category, I said, no, we're in the 'take business off the burger category.'"[16] That reasoning produced the tagline "Think Outside the Bun". In Creed's words: "We came up with 'Think Outside the Bun,' repositioned our products, relaunched the brand, and went from seven years of decline to four and a half years of growth."[3] AACSB International says he also developed a "Bold Choice" brand strategy for the chain in this period.[4] A company biography from 2013 described his years as chief marketing officer as Taco Bell's "highest sales and transaction growth period in recent history".[17]

Chief Operating Officer, Yum! Brands, 2005 to 2006

On December 5, 2005, Creed was appointed chief operating officer of the parent company, succeeding David Deno. The role covered operations, restaurant excellence, quality assurance and multibranding, as well as the smaller Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food brands. He was also asked to form and lead a team to work with the international division on making Taco Bell a global brand. The filing announcing the appointment noted that he had no employment agreement.[15] In this job Creed introduced a people-focused leadership approach for global operations called "Smart with Heart".[4] The company's 2013 biography said he "initiated and launched a one-system people approach across all global operations by working with COOs and their teams".[17]

President and Chief Concept Officer, Taco Bell, 2006 to 2011

Creed returned to Taco Bell as president and chief concept officer of Taco Bell U.S. in December 2006.[1] He told Bloomberg Businessweek that the appointment surprised many people, including himself: "I was like, 'I don't really know how to run restaurants. I know how to build brands.'"[3] The chain faced an E. coli food safety issue around this time, which Creed later mentioned when describing the problems he inherited.[3]

In 2008 the parent company's compensation committee rated his individual performance "significantly above target". It cited Taco Bell U.S. exceeding its profit plan and system sales growth measure, and "Mr. Creed's strong leadership in implementing the Why Pay More strategy", a value-menu push. It also pointed to improved transaction growth, new products and new restaurant development. The committee approved an individual performance factor of 140 for him that year.[18] Restaurant Business magazine later wrote that when Creed arrived the chain "was in dire shape, with units closing, franchisees up in arms and its marketing adrift".[19]

Creed chaired the board of the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens from 2007 to 2013. He also led Taco Bell's part in the parent company's World Hunger Relief effort, to which the chain contributed more than US$20 million from 2007.[4]

Chief Executive Officer, Taco Bell, 2011 to 2014

Creed became chief executive of Taco Bell in early 2011.[17] He was chief executive of Taco Bell U.S. from 2011 to December 2013, and chief executive of the global Taco Bell Division from January 2014 to December 2014.[1] At the time, Taco Bell had more than $5 billion in annual system-wide sales.[17] AACSB International said the chain accounted for 70 percent of the parent company's U.S. profit during his tenure.[4]

His first months in the role were dominated by a class action over the chain's seasoned beef, described below under Controversies. Over the following years the brand introduced several products and campaigns that the parent company later credited to him. When announcing his promotion in May 2014, David Novak cited Creed's creation of "new day parts such as FourthMeal and breakfast, as well as major product lines, such as Doritos Locos Tacos and Cantina Bell".[5] Restaurant Business listed "Live Mas", "Think Outside the Bun" and the Doritos Locos Taco among the campaigns he "hatched" at the chain.[19] The publisher's description of his later book says that in 2011 Taco Bell was "a brand in deep distress", and that Creed and his chief marketing officer Ken Muench developed their "Relevance, Ease, Distinctiveness" marketing method while turning it around.[9]

Creed tried to make every customer touch point distinctive. He later recalled that his Taco Bell business card was purple and shaped like a sauce packet. He also said he turned down an intern's proposal to add ranch dressing to the menu because it was "not Mexican inspired". His team came back with an avocado ranch dressing instead.[16]

Under a reorganisation announced on November 20, 2013, the parent company merged its U.S. and international divisions into global brand divisions from January 1, 2014. Creed became chief executive of a worldwide Taco Bell Division reporting directly to Novak.[20] For 2013 the compensation committee again judged his performance "significantly above target". It cited Taco Bell's results against operating profit, restaurant development and margin plans, "driving product innovation and promoting brand differentiation through a focus on digital media". He received 202 percent of his target bonus, or $1,511,625, the only named executive officer whose 2013 bonus exceeded $1 million.[21]

Chief Executive Officer, Yum! Brands, 2015 to 2019

Appointment

On May 1, 2014, the company announced that Novak, chairman and chief executive since 1999, would become executive chairman on January 1, 2015, and that Creed, then 56 and a 20-year veteran of the company, would succeed him as chief executive. All functional leaders and divisions would report to Creed, and he would form an "Office of the Chairman" with Novak and Sam Su, head of the China Division.[5] Creed told Restaurant Business that he had not expected the job: "I thought he called me because he wanted to play golf ... I honestly didn't know I was going to get this job. I thought I'd retire as the CEO of Taco Bell."[19] He joined the board on November 20, 2014.[22]

Creed took over at a difficult moment for the China business, the company's largest source of growth. In July 2014 its sales had fallen after adverse publicity over improper food handling by a former supplier. In December 2014, weeks before he took office, Creed committed the company to "at least 10%" earnings per share growth in 2015, saying he expected a "bounce-back in China".[23] The board explained that it was separating the chairman and chief executive roles partly because Creed was "new to the CEO role".[24]

2015: strategic review

The 2015 target was missed. Earnings per share rose 3 percent against the 10 percent goal, and the China and Pizza Hut divisions fell short on same-store sales and profit, though Taco Bell beat its targets. The compensation committee rated Creed's first year as chief executive "below target" and paid him 48 percent of his target bonus.[25][1]

During 2015 the board and management carried out what Creed called "a comprehensive, year-long process" reviewing the company's structure. On October 15, 2015 the company appointed Keith Meister, founder of the investment fund Corvex Management, to the board. Corvex then held nearly 5 percent of the company's shares.[26] Five days later, on October 20, 2015, the company announced that it would separate into two listed companies. The China Division would become an independent company and the remaining business would become a "pure play" franchisor.[27] In August 2015 Creed had named Micky Pant to succeed the retiring Sam Su as head of the China business, and Roger Eaton to run KFC outside China and India.[28] Novak announced in January 2016 that he would retire as executive chairman in May 2016, leaving Creed as the senior executive.[29]

2016: China spin-off

The separation was completed after the close of business on October 31, 2016, and Yum China began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "YUMC" on November 1, 2016. Shareholders received one Yum China share for each share they held, about 364 million shares in total.[30] Restaurant Business reported that not everyone inside the company agreed with the decision. Creed recalled some colleagues saying, "We've just sawed off all our growth!"[19] For 2016 the compensation committee cited his "leadership in completing the Separation" along with 16 percent operating profit growth, 5 percent system sales growth excluding currency effects, and 2,316 restaurant openings.[25]

2016 to 2019: transformation plan

At an investor conference on October 11, 2016, Creed set out the plan that ran for the rest of his tenure. Its aims were to raise franchise ownership from 77 percent to at least 98 percent by the end of 2018, cut annual capital spending from about $500 million to about $100 million by 2019, and reduce general and administrative costs by a cumulative $300 million by 2019. The company would also hold leverage at about five times EBITDA. The strategy rested on four "growth drivers": distinctive, relevant brands; franchise operating capability; bold restaurant development; and culture and talent.[6] Creed described the separation as having "provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to review our operating model".[6] He told Restaurant Business that such a transformation "is kind of like a scorched-earth policy for the organization", because morale and results usually fall while a company adjusts.[19]

Creed also reorganised management by brand rather than by geography. He told Restaurant Business: "We actually had four people running KFC."[19] In 2017 he received an individual rating of 130 for managing the company through "the first full year of its transformation into a pure-play franchisor". The committee cited adjusted operating profit growth of about 15 percent and 1,407 net new restaurants.[31] In 2018 the committee cited his leadership of the Grubhub, Telepizza and QuikOrder transactions, adjusted operating profit growth of about 11 percent and 3,039 net new restaurants.[32] By early 2019 he described the company as moving toward "more of a restaurant services company", and said he wanted to "work more with the brands, to keep them relevant ... I'm still a marketer at heart". Gibbs, by then president and chief operating officer, took on more of the operations, finance and real estate work.[19]

Succession and retirement

On August 12, 2019, the company announced that Creed, then 62, would retire at the end of 2019 after 25 years with the company, and that Gibbs would succeed him on January 1, 2020. The announcement said that "since 2017, Yum! Brands has transformed its business model to over 98 percent franchised". Brian Cornell, the non-executive chairman, called Creed "one of the most talented and passionate brand builders in the restaurant industry today".[7] Creed said: "I'm proud of how we're emerging from our multi-year transformation as a more focused, franchised and efficient growth company."[7] For 2019 the compensation committee noted core operating profit growth of about 11 percent, 8 percent system sales growth and 2,040 net new restaurants. It also cited the completion of "each of the Company's transformation goals", the leadership appointments he made before leaving, and "exceptionally high employee engagement versus peer group".[2]

Creed retired as chief executive effective December 31, 2019.[2] In November 2019 the committee approved a part-time advisory arrangement for 2020. Under it, Creed would educate executives on leading culture, mentor senior leaders and advise Gibbs, for a base salary of $500,000 and administrative support through 2022.[2] He remained a director until May 2020.[8]

After Yum! Brands

After leaving the company Creed founded Creed UnCo, which the CMO Council described as an "unconventional" consulting business focused on "culture and leadership, brand building, and franchising".[16] As of April 2026 he was also an adviser to the chief executive and board of Thanx Inc., a restaurant customer engagement technology company.[8]

In 2021 HarperCollins published R.E.D. Marketing: The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands, which Creed wrote with Ken Muench, the company's chief marketing officer. The book sets out the "Relevance, Ease, Distinctiveness" framework the two men had used at Taco Bell and across the group.[9] In a later CMO Council interview, Creed said KFC had "lost its cultural relevance in the U.S." and that customers wanted the kind of menu sold by Raising Cane's. He also argued that many marketers were losing "the intuitive skill to define and shape a great brand".[16]

Leadership and management style

Creed has described himself as a marketer first. He told Restaurant Business that his predecessor "honestly believed we were an operating company. The rest of us thought we were a marketing company."[19] His two best-known management phrases, both taught inside the company, were "SOBO" ("Sales Overnight, Brands Over Time") and "RED" ("Relevant, Easy, Distinctive"). He told the Australian trade publication Mi3 in 2019: "We say to our marketers, 'your job is to drive sales overnight and build brand over time. Your job is not just to drives sales; your job is not just to build the brand'."[33] He taught these modules to the global marketing teams himself and replaced TED-style talks with internal "RED talks". He credited the company's Collider marketing lab, run by Muench, with much of the programme's results.[33]

He applied the framework to diagnosis. When visiting an underperforming market, he said, he would ask: "Have you got a relevance problem, an ease problem, a distinctiveness problem?" He pointed to KFC's global same-store sales growth rising from 3 percent in the second quarter of 2017 to 6 percent two years later.[33] He was openly sceptical of cost-cutting as a strategy: "There's a lot of people, some of them in our category, who believe cost-cutting is the only way to improve shareholder value. At the end of the day you run out of things to cut."[33]

Culture was the other half of his approach. "People and brands are the two greatest assets a company has and they don't sit on the balance sheet," he told Mi3.[33] Restaurant Business described the table-tennis table he kept outside his office at the Plano, Texas, headquarters, his habit of wearing jeans and a sports coat after relaxing the dress code, and his credo that "innovation is a byproduct of courage". When someone suggested putting the table away before a board meeting, Creed declined: "I'm my best self when I'm my true self."[19] Gibbs said of him: "Greg's not asking anyone on his team to pretend to be something they're not."[19] Creed said he hoped his legacy would be "all about culture. The key is, I want to create an environment where you can be yourself."[19]

He linked that culture directly to marketing decisions. After KFC's British restaurants ran out of chicken in 2018 when the chain changed suppliers, the UK team ran advertisements reading "FCK, we're sorry". Creed said: "If we didn't have a great culture, there's no way KFC England would have had the courage to come up with 'FCK' chicken."[19] He told Mi3 that Taco Bell's 2019 pop-up hotel in Palm Springs, which sold out in two minutes, returned "100 times the original investment".[33] His life lessons, as given to Bloomberg Businessweek, included "Take the jobs no one else wants" and "Creating great experiences for employees is the key to delivering superb experiences for customers."[3]

Major deals and strategic decisions

  • Separation of Yum China (2015 to 2016). Announced on October 20, 2015 after a year-long review, and completed on October 31, 2016. Yum China became the master licensee for mainland China, paying a licence fee of 3 percent of system sales.[27][34][30] On September 2, 2016 the company agreed that Primavera Capital Group and Ant Financial would invest a combined $460 million in Yum China when the spin-off closed. Creed called the deal "another important milestone".[35]
  • Capital return and leverage (2015 to 2019). In December 2015 the company said it would return up to $6.2 billion to shareholders before the separation and move to a non-investment-grade balance sheet, targeting leverage of about five times EBITDA. Creed called the transaction "a classic example of 'one plus one equaling more than two'".[34] By October 10, 2016 it had repurchased about $5.5 billion of shares at an average of about $81, cutting the share count by about 16 percent. It then raised its target to $13.5 billion of total returns, including dividends, between the fourth quarter of 2015 and 2019.[6]
  • Refranchising (2016 to 2018). The company sold company-owned restaurants to franchisees until it operated all but 856 of its stores. Restaurant Business described it as perhaps "the industry's most ambitious refranchising effort to date".[19] In 2018 alone it refranchised restaurants for pre-tax proceeds of $825 million, and by year end franchisees owned 98 percent of units.[36] The plan included a one-time "Launch Grant" of performance shares to Creed, worth $4 million at grant in November 2016. It would pay out only if targets for general and administrative costs and reduced company store ownership were met.[25]
  • Grubhub investment (2018). The company bought a stake of about 3 percent in the delivery company Grubhub for $200 million in 2018 to give franchisees access to its service. Creed presented it as an investment in "Easy".[19][37] The stake was marked to market. In the fourth quarter of 2018 the company recorded a $171 million pre-tax charge for the fall in its value, though over the full year the investment produced $14 million of pre-tax income.[36]
  • Telepizza and QuikOrder (2018). The company formed a strategic alliance under which Telepizza would develop 1,300 Pizza Hut restaurants over 10 years in Spain, Portugal, much of Latin America, the Caribbean and Switzerland. It also bought the online ordering platform QuikOrder for Pizza Hut franchisees.[19]

Financial and market performance

Because of the China spin-off and the refranchising programme, headline figures from the start and end of Creed's tenure are not directly comparable. In 2014, the year before he took over, the company reported total revenues of $13.279 billion. Its businesses employed about 537,000 people, about 87 percent of them part-time.[38] In 2019, his last year, total revenues were $5.597 billion and the company and its subsidiaries employed about 34,000 people. The system then had more than 50,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries and territories, 98 percent of them run by franchisees.[39] When his appointment was announced in 2014, the system had more than 40,000 restaurants in more than 125 countries.[5]

The company said that in 2018 its brands generated more than $49 billion in system sales and opened a record eight gross new restaurants a day. System sales grew 5 percent and same-store sales 2 percent that year.[36] In 2017 system sales grew 5 percent excluding the effect of a 53rd week in 2016, with same-store sales growth of 2 percent and net unit growth of 3 percent.[37] In September 2019 Creed said the company's total shareholder return over the previous three years was "in the 90-something percentile of the S&P 500".[33] In the same interview he said he expected Taco Bell to exceed $11 billion in sales in 2019.[33]

The compensation committee initially set Creed's pay below the median of the company's peer group because he was new to the role. It moved his target pay to about the median in 2018 and to about the 60th percentile in 2019.[1][31][2] His base salary rose from $1.1 million in 2015 to $1.3 million in 2019, and his target bonus from 150 percent to 185 percent of salary.[1][2] Reported total compensation in the summary compensation tables was:

Year Role Total reported compensation (US$)
2013 CEO, Taco Bell 4,035,284[21]
2014 CEO, Taco Bell Division 4,973,503[1]
2015 CEO 7,493,376[1]
2016 CEO 15,380,682[25]
2017 CEO 12,368,607[2]
2018 CEO 14,007,038[2]
2019 CEO (retired December 31) 16,369,090[2]

Board memberships and outside roles

Creed has held the following public company directorships:[10]

  • International Game Technology, director from 2010 to 2015. He took his annual cash retainer as deferred stock units.[14]
  • Yum! Brands, director from November 2014 to May 2020.[8]
  • Whirlpool Corporation, director since 2017. He was elected independent Presiding Director in April 2025, and as of the 2026 proxy statement he chaired the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and sat on the Human Resources Committee. The board cited his consumer marketing experience and his international work at Unilever. Shareholders re-elected him on April 24, 2026.[10][12]
  • Aramark, director since 2020. He chaired its Finance Committee, later the Finance and Technology Committee, and sat on the Compensation and Human Resources Committee. Shareholders re-elected him in February 2026 for a term running to the 2027 annual meeting.[40][13]
  • Delta Air Lines, director since April 21, 2022. He sits on the Corporate Governance, Finance, and Personnel & Compensation committees. Shareholders re-elected him in June 2026.[8][11]
  • Sow Good Inc., director from 2020 to 2022.[10]

He also serves on the board of the privately held NetBase Quid.[40] Earlier non-profit and academic roles included the boards of the Taco Bell Foundation and the Fight 2 Win Foundation, and the board of visitors of the UCLA Anderson School of Management.[14]

Controversies

Taco Bell "seasoned beef" lawsuit, 2011

On January 19, 2011, Amanda Obney filed a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Obney v. Taco Bell Corp., No. 11-00101). It alleged that Taco Bell's "seasoned beef" contained too little beef to be labelled as such, and that its suppliers called it "taco meat filling".[41][42] Taco Bell's brand perception scores fell sharply after the suit was publicised.[42]

Creed, then president and chief concept officer, responded with newspaper advertisements that carried a letter from him headed "Thank you for suing us". The ads called the claims "absolutely false" and disclosed the filling's ingredients, which the company put at 88 percent beef. Creed described the campaign as giving away the chain's "secret" recipe.[42] The plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the suit in April 2011. Taco Bell said no money had changed hands and that it was not changing its products, ingredients or advertising. The plaintiff's lawyers said they withdrew after Taco Bell made "changes in marketing and product disclosure".[41] Creed, by then chief executive, told Reuters the company had spent $3 million to $4 million on the campaign: "We gave them the facts, which we could have given them three months ago before this was filed, and when they saw the facts they withdrew the lawsuit. It's that simple."[41] In a statement he added that he wished the attorneys "had contacted us before filing and publicizing a lawsuit that disparaged our brand".[43] The parent company said in February 2011 that the lawsuit had hurt sales at Taco Bell's 5,600 U.S. restaurants.[41] Creed later recalled that when the suit was withdrawn the chain ran a further advertisement asking: "Would it kill you to say you're sorry?"[3]

Investor pressure, 2015

In his first year as chief executive the company missed its earnings target, and the board added Keith Meister of Corvex Management, then one of the largest shareholders, before announcing the separation of the China business. Meister said Corvex had held "a constructive dialogue with the Board and management over the last several months".[26] After the 2016 annual meeting the compensation committee consulted shareholders on executive pay. In response it changed the equity mix of long-term awards and tied performance shares to relative total shareholder return and earnings per share growth.[25]

Personal life

Creed is married to Carolyn Creed.[3] He and his wife are co-trustees of the Creed Revocable Living Trust, which holds shares in Delta Air Lines. Earlier, part of his Yum! Brands shareholding was held by a family limited liability company he managed.[8][32] In 2019 Mi3 reported that he would remain in the United States after retiring.[33] Restaurant Business described him as "the proud Aussie" whose accent "leaves no doubt he hails from Down Under". He is a keen table-tennis player who was often beaten by Gibbs.[19] He has said that, as an Australian, he dislikes ranch dressing.[16]

Philanthropy

Creed chaired the board of the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens from 2007 to 2013 and remained involved as past chair. The foundation supports teenagers in finishing high school.[4] He has served on the board of Fight2Win, which raises money and awareness for research into a cure for Hodgkin's disease.[4][14] At Taco Bell he led the chain's part in World Hunger Relief, the parent company's hunger campaign, to which Taco Bell contributed more than US$20 million from 2007.[4] As chief executive, his 2015 performance review cited the company's "continued commitment to corporate social responsibility through the World Food Programme and other hunger relief organizations".[1]

Recognition

  • Unilever chairman's award for best product launch, for Lever 2000.[4]
  • Chairman's award for strategic brand innovation, for his work as chief marketing officer of KFC and Pizza Hut in Australia.[4]
  • AACSB International Influential Leader, 2015, as an alumnus of the QUT Business School.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Definitive proxy statement, 2016 annual meeting". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 8, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 "Definitive proxy statement, 2020 annual meeting". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 3, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  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 "How Did I Get Here? Greg Creed". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 "Greg Creed: 2015 Influential Leader". AACSB International. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Announces CEO Succession Plan, Becomes Effective on January 1, 2015 (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. May 1, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Details Transformation Plans to Drive Growth of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell After China Separation at Annual Investor Conference Today (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. October 11, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Announces CEO Succession Plan to Drive Next Chapter of Global Growth, Effective January 1, 2020 (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. August 12, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 "Delta Air Lines 2026 proxy statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 24, 2026. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "R.E.D. Marketing by Greg Creed and Ken Muench". Angus & Robertson. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Whirlpool Corporation notice of annual meeting of stockholders and 2026 proxy statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 10, 2026. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Delta Air Lines Form 8-K: submission of matters to a vote of security holders". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. June 22, 2026. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Whirlpool Corporation Form 8-K: submission of matters to a vote of security holders". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 24, 2026. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Aramark Form 8-K: submission of matters to a vote of security holders". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 4, 2026. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "International Game Technology definitive proxy statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. January 24, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 "Form 8-K: appointment of Greg Creed as Chief Operating Officer". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 5, 2005. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 "Executive Perspective: Greg Creed". CMO Council. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 "Senior officers". Yum! Brands. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  18. ↑ "Definitive proxy statement, 2009 annual meeting". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 8, 2009. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  19. ↑ 19.00 19.01 19.02 19.03 19.04 19.05 19.06 19.07 19.08 19.09 19.10 19.11 19.12 19.13 19.14 19.15 Romeo, Peter."The Rule Breaker". Restaurant Business. April 1, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  20. ↑ "Realigns Business Divisions to Propel Global Growth (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. November 20, 2013. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Definitive proxy statement, 2014 annual meeting". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 21, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  22. ↑ "Form 8-K: appointment of Elane Stock and Greg Creed as directors". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. November 20, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  23. ↑ "Expects Full-Year 2015 EPS Growth of At Least 10%; Will Host Investor Update Meeting on Thursday, December 11, 2014 (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 9, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  24. ↑ "Definitive proxy statement, 2015 annual meeting". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 20, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 "Definitive proxy statement, 2017 annual meeting". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 7, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Nears Conclusion of Strategic Review; Appoints Keith A. Meister to the Board of Directors; Updates Outlook for 2015 (Exhibit 99.2 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. October 15, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "Announces Intention to Separate into Two Publicly Traded Companies (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. October 20, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  28. ↑ "Micky Pant Named Chief Executive Officer of Yum Brands China Division; Succeeds Sam Su (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. August 18, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  29. ↑ "Executive Chairman David C. Novak to Retire in May 2016 (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. January 5, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 "Completes Separation of Yum China Business (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. November 1, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 "Definitive proxy statement, 2018 annual meeting". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 6, 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 "Definitive proxy statement, 2019 annual meeting". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 5, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 33.5 33.6 33.7 33.8 McIntyre, Paul."Why KFC's 'FCK' crisis and Taco Bell's pop-up hotel built the brands: Global Yum! CEO Greg Creed". Mi3. September 9, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 "To Discuss Further Details of Separation into Two Independent Companies with Strong Growth Profiles at Annual Investor Conference Today (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 10, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  35. ↑ "Announces Primavera Capital Group and Ant Financial Services Group to Make Strategic Investment in Yum China (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. September 2, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 "Fourth-quarter 2018 results (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 7, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 "Fourth-quarter 2017 results (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 8, 2018. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  38. ↑ "Annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 27, 2014". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 17, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  39. ↑ "Annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 20, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 "Aramark definitive proxy statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 22, 2025. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 41.3 Stempel, Jonathan."Lawsuit over content of Taco Bell beef dropped". April 19, 2011. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 "Taco Bell defends itself with new ads". Nation's Restaurant News. January 2011. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  43. ↑ "Taco Bell beef lawsuit dropped". QSR Web. April 2011. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
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