Fred Turner Biography & Net Worth

Fred Turner Biography & Net Worth

Fred Turner was an American restaurant industry executive. He was the chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McDonald’s .He is credited with assisting to massively develop McDonald’s, introducing new meals and implementing service standards for the business and its staff. Fred Turner’s Biography, financial data, and life details have been published herein. If you’re ready to discover something new about this famous individual, let’s go!

Fred Turner’s Early Life

Frederick Leo “Fred” Turner was born on January 6, 1933 in the United States. He was raised in Chicago and Des Moines. After graduating from Drake University in 1954, he served in the United States Army for sometime before switching to a different career option.

Fred Turner’s Career

Turner started working at McDonald’s in 1956 when he filled the position of grill operator. He did not last long in this position as he was quickly promoted to the position of Operations Vice President in 1958, when there were only 34 employees working at the company. In that role, Fred established strict guidelines for the restaurant’s hamburgers and other products were to be served – including that fries “must be precisely 0.28 inches thick”, and that “precisely ten patties must be formed from each pound of beef”. He made “Quality, Service and Cleanliness” his motto, and continued to put in all he had into leading the company forward towards greatness. In 1967, he became Executive Vice President, and then became President and Chief Administrative Officer in 1968. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 1977, and went on to replace Kroc as Chairman in 1977. Upon Kroc’s death, Turner became Senior Chairman of the company. Under his impressive leadership, McDonald’s expanded its business to over 118 countries, with more than 31,000 outlets, and over a billion hamburgers were sold. Turner retired in 2004, and then served as Honorary Chairman.

About McDonald’s

McDonald’s Corporation is one of the biggest American fast food companies. It was founded in the year 1940 in San Bernardino, California, United States, as a restaurant managed by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. They initially started their business as a hamburger stand, and eventually later turned the company into a franchise. In 1955, American businessman Ray Kroc joined the firm as a franchise agent and moved to purchase the chain from its owners.

By revenue, McDonald’s is the world’s largest restaurant chain, serving more than 69 million customers daily in more than over 1180 countries across 37,855 outlets.  Although McDonald’s is best known for its French fries, hamburgers, and cheeseburgers, they feature chicken products, desserts, wraps, milkshakes, soft drinks, salads, smoothies, fish, fruits, and breakfast items.  According to two 2018 reports, McDonald’s is the second-largest private employer in the world, boasting of 1.7 million staff (behind Walmart with 2.3 million employees).

In 2019, McDonald’s company-owned and franchise restaurants generated a whooping $100 million. This sum accounts for nearly 4% of the estimated $2.5 trillion worldwide restaurant industry. For the fiscal year 2018, the restaurant giants reported earnings of about $5.9 billion, with annual revenue of $21 billion, a decrease of 7.9% over the preceding fiscal cycle. McDonald’s shares traded at more than $145 per share, and its market capitalization was worth more than $134.5 billion in September 2018.

Awards & Membership Honors

Fred Turner’s tenure as chief executive officer and chairman of the popular restaurant giant McDonald’s was marked with excellence as he transformed the restaurant into something great beyond imagination. When he joined the restaurant and was named Operations Vice President, the company had less than 40 members of staff. He worked his way up the ranks and helped the business expand to hundreds of workers serving the restaurant in more than 31,000 outlets across 100 countries. This is of course a huge feat for anybody to pull off.

He served as a director for Aon Corporation, W. W. Grainger, and Baxter International. He was presented the Horatio Alger Award in the year 1991.

Personal Life, Family, Death

On June 22, 1954, almost immediately after graduating from college, Turner married fellow Drake University graduate Patricia Shurtleff. The couple had a peaceful marriage, and had three daughters together. Sadly, Patricia passed away on 9 October 2000.

On 7 January 2013, Fred Turner died the day after celebrating his 80th birthday, due to complications from pneumonia.

Fred Turner Net Worth

At the time he died in 2013, Fred Turner net worth was $150. The American restaurant industry executive and philanthropist retired in 2003 after serving the McDonald’s Company diligently for many decades. He was also one of the founders of the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

In 2002, the year before Fred retired, an SEC filing showed that the CEO owned 1.5 million shares of McDonald’s company stock which at that time was valued at around $22 million. The stock exploded throughout the next decade.