Alex Snelling joined McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada as Chief People Officer (CPO) in 2022. As CPO, Alex works with leaders from across the Canadian business, including our independent franchisees, to ensure we keep people at the heart of everything we do. He develops and implements holistic strategies that uphold a safe, flexible and inclusive workplace for everyone, accelerate growth and deliver on McDonald’s purpose to feed and foster communities from coast to coast to coast.
Alex brings more than 15 years of human resources and talent management experience to the role, including four years in his most recent positions with the McDonald’s Corporation.
From his previous People Lead role in the brand’s London, U.K. office Alex lead the HR agenda across 23 markets in Eastern and Central Europe. Previous to this he led talent development and acquisition initiatives across all McDonald’s international markets outside the U.S.
Alex’s efforts in McDonald’s Global Talent Centre of Excellence has broadened the organization’s vibrant, people-first culture and embodies the company’s belief in making a bigger impact by working together. By aligning processes and training in areas like succession planning, talent review, performance management and culture development across markets, he has helped set a new global standard for the McDonald’s business. A deep understanding of McDonald’s values continues to drive Alex’s objective to build on the brand’s universal culture of continuous learning, growth and innovation, which he brings to the Canadian business.
Before joining McDonald’s Corporation in 2018 Alex was Human Resources Director for major retailers and consumer brands like Cath Kidston, The Body Shop and L’Oréal across several talent management, learning & recruitment roles. Before his business career Alex studied History at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.
