Kuala Lumpur – McDonald’s Malaysia welcomes the return of Azmir Jaafar as its Managing Director, effective 15 August 2015, following the departure of his predecessor, Stephen Chew. Prior to his return, Azmir was the Managing Director of McDonald’s Middle East Development Company since January 2015.
Azmir, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from the University of Bath, joined McDonald’s Malaysia as a management trainee in 1993 and a year later moved to restaurant development, where he led the team until 2004.
Under his stewardship, McDonald’s Malaysia recorded a string of achievements including one which acknowledged Malaysia as a best practice for Drive-Thru development for emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific Middle East Africa (APMEA) region. During the same period, Azmir was also responsible for the growth of the restaurant base by more than 300 per cent.
Azmir returns to his old job
In 2006, Azmir (pic) was appointed as Managing Director of McDonald’s Malaysia. Together with his leadership team, Azmir set an aggressive goal of doubling the business within five years. It was during this exciting period of expansion that McDonald’s Malaysia accelerated its restaurant openings, franchising, and deployment of multiple brand extensions that resulted in double digit sales growth.
Following his success in Malaysia, Azmir was assigned to McDonald’s China in 2009 to assume the position of Vice-President/Chief Development Officer where he helped open more than 1,100 restaurants within five years. During his tenure, Azmir also implemented the new design concept at more than 60 per cent of its restaurants, opened 500 McCafes, and tripled Drive-Thrus to more than 250. Azmir was also instrumental in modernizing and resourcing China’s development team, which led to the establishment of the APMEA Development University in 2013.
“It is an honour to be given the opportunity to lead the McDonald’s business in Malaysia again. I look forward to building upon the strong foundation that has been set and working with the team to create new milestones as we drive the business to the next level,” said Azmir on his appointment.
McDonald’s is the world’s leading global foodservice retailer with over 36,000 restaurants worldwide, serving more than 70 million customers daily in more than 100 countries. In Malaysia, McDonald’s serves over 13.5 million customers a month at more than 260 restaurants nationwide. McDonald’s employs more than 12,000 Malaysians in restaurants across the nation providing career, training and development opportunities.
