Downfall of the ‘Wizard from Watford’
of those Mr Easterbrook, a career company man who was appointed CEO in March 2015, had relations with.
In the papers, the firm says: ‘An internal investigation into this allegation discovered photographic evidence that, while he was CEO, Easterbrook had engaged in a physical sexual relationship not only with Employee-2, but also with two other company employees in the year before his termination.’
McDonald’s claims that its investigators found ‘ dozens of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women, including photographs of these company employees, that Easterbrook had sent as attachments to messages from his company email account to his personal email account.
‘The date and time stamps on the photos of the three company employees show the photos were all taken in late 2018 or early 2019.
‘The photos are indisputable evidence that Easterbrook repeatedly violated the company’s prohibition of any kind of intimate relationship between employees in a direct or indirect reporting relationship.
‘They are indisputable evidence that Easterbrook lied during the investigation into his behaviour in
BORN and raised in Watford, Steve Easterbrook was once the golden boy of McDonald’s, turning around the ailing fortunes of the world’s biggest fast food chain.
Dubbed the ‘Wizard from Watford’, he put healthier choices on its waist-busting menu and purged its army of executives to boost profits during his five years as chief executive.
He was educated at Watford grammar school and boasts that his first job was stacking shelves at M&S. He went to Durham University, then worked briefly as an accountant before joining McDonald’s finance department in 1993. Following 18 months at ‘Hamburger
October 2019, when independent outside counsel expressly asked him if he had ever engaged in a physical sexual relationship with any company employee.’
The emails, pictures and videos were not found during the investigation last year into Mr Easterbrook’s admitted liaison, which he told the company was a one-off.
According to the lawsuit, the divorced father- of-three tried to cover his tracks but did not realise
University’, McDonald’s high-flyer training academy in Illinois, he was, by 2006, running the UK arm of the business.
He left in 2011 but rejoined McDonald’s in 2013, moving to its Chicago HQ. It is around this time that he reportedly divorced his wife Susie, with whom he has three children, and began his first ‘office romance’.
But bosses found his relationship with Denise Paleothodoros, who was assigned to the McDonald’s account by her PR firm, did not breach any rules. They took a different view in 2019, sacking him when his sexting relationship with a junior colleague came to light.
that deleting the incriminating evidence from his company mobile phone failed to remove them from the firm’s computer servers.
Not knowing the alleged true extent of his behaviour, McDonald’s in November decided he had broken its rules by engaging in an ‘inappropriate relationship with a subordinate’ and shown such poor judgment he could no longer continue as chief executive.
However, based on what he said, the company approved a separation agreement ‘without cause’ that allowed Mr Easterbrook to leave with what it called ‘substantial severance benefits’.
He was allowed to keep some £32million in share-based benefits, according to Equilar, a company which tracks executive compensation, and also collected half a year’s salary, worth another £520,000.
McDonald’s, in the court papers, said: ‘The board would not have agreed to the terms of the separation agreement had it then been aware of Easterbrook’s physical sexual relationships with three McDonald’s employees, his approval of a discretionary stock grant for Employee-2 while they were in a sexual relationship, and the falsity of his representation to outside counsel that he had never engaged in a physical sexual relationship with a company employee.
‘And had Easterbrook not deleted evidence from his phone and lied to the board and its investigators in October 2019, the board would have known the full record of his conduct when it considered the terms of his separation.’
Mr Easterbrook was unavailable for comment and has not yet filed his defence.
Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal claimed he had frequently flirted with female staff after indulging in an existing culture of after-work hard drinking among employees at McDonald’s Chicago HQ, close to where Mr Easterbrook has a luxury flat.
Staff said they were alarmed that, even as CEO, Mr Easterbrook continued to fraternise with underlings in local bars into the early hours.