Tabassum Zalotrawala

SVP & Chief Development Officer, U.S.

McDonald’s

As McDonald’s USA Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Tabassum Zalotrawala leads the Restaurant Development team focused on accelerating the pace of McDonald’s restaurant openings, including the real estate, construction, facilities, architecture, and strategy/analytics teams. In this role, Tabassum oversees the expansion of McDonald’s in the US and manages the 13,000 US McDonald’s restaurant portfolio.

Tabassum joined McDonald’s in 2023 after four and a half years as Chief Development Officer at Chipotle Mexican Grill where she led a holistic restaurant turnaround strategy and all aspects of real estate development for the US, Canada, and Europe. At Chipotle, she also oversaw the Center of Excellence for Design and Construction to ensure restaurants reflected the appropriate brand image and provided a convenient and welcoming customer experience.

Prior to Chipotle, Tabassum served as Chief Development Officer for four years at Panda Restaurant Group where she championed a fundamental shift around innovation and development to drive growth for the organization. She also comes to McDonald’s with significant experience in quick service restaurants from Arby’s Restaurant Group where she was employed for nine years.

Tabassum’s experience is matched by her ongoing extensive executive education. Her bachelor’s in Fine Arts is complemented with her completion of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program, an intensive program that creates transformational leaders capable of tackling an organization’s toughest challenges.

She was honored with the Exceptional Women Awardee award in 2020 and serves on the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Board of Trustees. Tabassum also serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Rock Hospitality Company, a publicly traded self-advised Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and is involved in non-profit work as a sponsor for Sahiyo, an organization with a mission to empower Asian and other communities to create positive social change through dialogue, education, and collaboration based on community involvement.