Domenico Di Carluccio
Cleaning and Caring For Rome
After nearly two decades working in various roles in the consumer goods industry, Di Carluccio was ready for his next challenge. He wanted to apply his leadership skills at a company that allowed him to promote the well-being of employees and customers around Rome. McDonald’s was the perfect fit.
“McDonald’s is a global company that has a local footprint, and a local presence,” he says. “That is because of the structure in which franchisees that really feel the needs of their community are able to interpret those needs, and create a bond with the final consumer. This is what we do.”
With the aim of getting all 360 team members who work at his restaurants to “smile while they work,” Di Carluccio says he developed a leadership style he calls “envision, enable and energize.”
It includes providing resources like after-school care for employees with children and free mental health counseling, as well as acknowledging exceptional performance in fun ways, like having his staff vote for a manager of the month. Di Carluccio also offers scholarships and educational support for employees and their families through the McDonald’s Archways to Opportunity program, which provides tuition assistance, skills development and more.
Di Carluccio also works with his teams to organize clean-up days in the local community and expand on McDonald’s national food donation program. Together, they’ve delivered more than 6,000 meals to homeless and displaced people over the past two years.
While opening his sixth restaurant last December, Di Carluccio discovered that the previous occupant, a supermarket, had adorned their roof with an inflatable Santa in a holiday tradition the neighborhood’s children were sad to see go. To keep it alive, he put up a Santa twice as large. It became a local phenomenon, and what Di Carluccio says is symbolic of McDonald’s “glocalization”—a term he uses to describe how the global brand connects with local customers.
As president of International Developmental Licensed Markets (IDL) at McDonald’s, Baroni has seen that sentiment being multiplied across European markets, thanks to a franchise model that supports innovative approaches to serving community needs.
“We’re proud that, over the decades, we’ve been able to build a diverse group of over 1,400 franchisees in Europe who are able to use their different experiences and perspectives to take a fresh look at the business and challenge the status quo according to cultural context,” he says. “There's a global framework, but local freedom.”
Rome, Italy
In 2002, more than two decades after joining McDonald’s as a crew member in the late 1980s, Sterio became one of the youngest franchisees in Europe at age 32. She now owns six restaurants in the northern area of the Republic of Ireland, with about 430 employees. She has collaborated with WorkAbility, an organization that helps people with disabilities find employment, to hire crew at her restaurants. In 2024, Sterio won the Golden Arches Award through which McDonald’s headquarters recognizes leadership, customer service and community involvement.
Antwi-Kusi says that working as a Customer Care Assistant in a McDonald’s restaurant from 2010-2012 is what initially sparked his entrepreneurial interest and inspired him to become a McDonald’s franchisee in 2023. He now operates three restaurants in London, where he’s partnered with local charities in the Borough of Barking and Dagenham to co-launch a program for at-risk young people to gain business skills and hands-on work experience at his restaurants. The initiative earned him an induction into a local Hall of Fame.
Elaine Sterio
Joey
Antwi-Kusi
Below, explore the local impact of McDonald’s franchise network across Europe.
Ana Margarida Teixeira
For Ana Margarida Teixeira, becoming a McDonald’s franchisee in 2020 represented a sort of homecoming.
As a teenager, Teixeira helped her mother open her first McDonald’s restaurant. Later, while earning a business degree, Teixeira pitched in again when her mother opened a second franchise. The experiences inspired her to follow in her mother’s entrepreneurial path.
“I have a lot of ketchup in my veins,” jokes Teixeira, who now operates seven restaurants in Portugal. “McDonald's is my family business.”
She says she has “tremendous pride” in her mother, who retired last December after nearly 25 years as a franchisee, for building a successful business and for positively impacting their community.
But Teixeira hadn’t thought much about her own impact until one of her employees named her as a role model in an interview with a local newspaper.
“That was the day I realized the impact I had on others,” she says. “It gives you an enormous sense of responsibility.”
Teixeira helps her employees gain the skills and knowledge they need for a successful future, including by providing scholarships to 16 crew members to help pay for college. She’s also active in the communities her restaurants serve, forming longstanding partnerships with a local charity for foster children and supporting several area youth sports clubs.
“My mother was always very connected with the communities, and that's something I've learned from her,” says Teixeira. “It's a very important McDonald's value.”
Teixeira also applies her business and marketing skills to connect with and serve the community in new ways. For example, her team surveyed customers in the restaurant and at the drive-through window about what kind of dining experience they were looking for. Then, Teixeira and her team devised a targeted strategy to creatively engage customers and tailor offerings to local tastes.
“The big thing I brought was the importance of understanding the specific needs of your customers,” says Teixeira. “Although [we] are McDonald's, a big brand, … my restaurants are in smaller cities.”
Carregado, Portugal
Ireland
United Kingdom
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Click to explore how other McDonald’s franchisees are driving impact across their communities.
Forging A Family Legacy Of Impact In Portugal
Bosia, who joined the McDonald’s family when the company acquired his restaurant chain in 1996, now owns 16 restaurants in and around Milan and employs more than 1,000 people. In 2016, he won McDonald’s Golden Arches Award for leading his staff’s exceptional performance and community involvement. In 2024, Bosia was recognized by the United Nations Human Rights Commission for his efforts to hire refugees and asylum seekers.
Giacomo Bosia
Italy
Van het Hoog, who at 75 is the oldest McDonald’s franchisee in the Netherlands, opened the first of his three restaurants in 1987. That year, he also introduced the country’s first McDrive, or a McDonald’s with drive-through service. Van het Hoog devised an innovative approach to recruiting employees, hosting “speed-interviewing” sessions with his HR specialist.
Leen van het Hoog
Netherlands
Penders, who at age 31 is the youngest franchisee in the Netherlands, is not new to McDonald’s restaurant ownership. His father, mother and uncle were all McDonald’s franchisees and his family now owns several locations around the country. “McDonald's is in my DNA; I grew up with it.” Penders says. “I want to build on what my parents have built and do even better by responding to the needs of this time.”
Mathijs Penders
Netherlands
Andreou’s dream of bringing the Golden Arches to his native Cyprus became a reality in 1997, when he opened the country’s first McDonald’s franchise. Together with his wife Margarita, his brother Renos and his three children, the family-run business has grown to 23 restaurants—making McDonald’s the largest fast-serving food chain in Cyprus. The Andreous family helped launch the country’s first Ronald McDonald House, a nonprofit family and children's charity dedicated to supporting the medical care of children in needy families.
Michalis Andreou
Cyprus
Reisert is a third-generation franchisee. His grandfather, Rudolf Weber, was the first franchisee in Germany, opening his inaugural restaurant in Munich in 1975. Reisert’s mother and father were also franchisees. Since taking over from his mother in 2019, Reisert has continued to expand the business and now owns nine restaurants. He worked his way up, starting behind the counter during high school summers. Andreas and his team regularly volunteer at their local Ronald McDonald House Charity cooking meals for the families staying at the house.
Andreas Reisert
Germany
After emigrating from his native Afghanistan at the age of 10, Nabizada fulfilled a lifelong dream of one day owning a McDonald’s restaurant when he became a franchisee in 2023. He now owns three restaurants in Austria, employing about 150 people. Nabizada spearheaded a campaign providing special offers to those working in the armed forces and emergency services. He also sponsors a local women’s soccer team in Austria’s Perg district, where one of his franchises is located—reflecting his own and McDonald’s “shared values of teamwork, commitment and local community responsibility.”
Latif Nabizada
Austria
After joining McDonald’s 34 years ago, Nicolas worked his way up in McDonald’s from his first job as a student to becoming a franchise supervisor. He finally became a franchisee himself in 2017 and now owns seven restaurants in two Belgian provinces. His son, a student, works at one of them. Nicolas’ newer restaurants were designed with sustainability in mind, and include electric car and bike charging stations.
Steven Nicolas
Belgium
Abril brought years of senior marketing experience in food and retail when she joined McDonald’s as a corporate general manager in 2005. She became president of McDonald’s Spain less than a year later, and her success driving inclusive growth and team trust led Funde, a Spanish nonprofit and advocacy group, to name her “Female Executive of the Year” in 2011. Abril then decided to pivot to franchise ownership in 2016, when she opened her first McDonald’s restaurant. She now leads three locations in Mallorca, employing around 160 crew members.
Patricia Abril
Spain
