KFC Appoints First-Ever Chief Brand Officer Amid Rebrand

KFC is appointing its first-ever Global Chief Brand Officer. 

Effective November 1, Amy Ellis Durini will be taking on the newly created role, following the launch of a major global rebrand in June 2026. 

She previously spent eight years at KFC, and rejoins the company after five years at Taco Bell. 

“As we continue setting the standard for the modern chicken QSR, I am excited to welcome Amy Ellis Durini to our global leadership team as KFC's Global Chief Brand Officer,” Scott Mezvinsky, CEO of KFC, said of the appointment on LinkedIn.
 
“I've had the pleasure of working with Amy during my time with KFC LA&C and Taco Bell. Her creativity, collaborative mindset, strategic leadership and track record of culture-led growth will help us connect with consumers in even more relevant and distinctive ways.”

QSR marketing experience

Amy rejoins KFC after just over five years at Taco Bell – first joining in 2021 as a VP of Brand Strategy before progressing to the International Chief Marketing Officer role in 2022. In September 2025, her role was expanded to International Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. 

During this time, she helped bring some of Taco Bell’s biggest campaigns to life – such as Encore Hours, Crossbar Bong and Live Más Club. 

Before that, she spent eight years at KFC, where she progressed from a role as Senior Manager, Consumer Insights across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2013, to a role as the company’s Global Director of Marketing, which she held from June 2019 to June 2021. 

“KFC has already played such an important role in my career,” Amy says on LinkedIn. “Before Taco Bell, I spent eight years across KFC’s Latin America and Global teams, so returning feels a bit like coming home.” 

Amy has also held marketing leadership roles at companies such as Burger King, Kraft Foods and Panera Bread, giving her a strong foundation in the QSR industry.

KFC launches a new chapter

As KFC’s first Chief Brand Officer, Amy will be leading the company’s global brand strategy – overseeing loyalty, brand and retail, alongside new concept development and innovation. This, the company says, will involve creating more relevant and distinctive ways KFC can engage with its consumers. 

This follows KFC's introduction of a refreshed brand identity in June – with the brand saying it is set to open a “new generation of spaces”, that have been designed for hospitality, rather than just efficiency. 

This includes environments that have been created to adapt throughout the day to meet different occasions, while also elevating the overall dining experience.

Alongside this, the brand has been sharpening the ways it shows up visually by evolving its assets to feel “more relevant, more expressive and more in tune with modern culture”, says the company. 

Amy will also partner closely with KFC's CMO community across markets, working with marketing leaders to continue modernising the KFC expression and experience around the world.

Who are KFC’s biggest partners?

• NVIDIA: NVIDIA partnered with KFC parent company Yum! Brands to accelerate restaurant industry innovation. Developers at Byte by Yum! harnessed NVIDIA NIM microservices and NVIDIA Riva to build new AI-accelerated voice ordering agents in under four months. These agents can understand natural speech, process complex menu orders and suggest add-ons.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS): Yum! Brands uses AWS as the main cloud foundation for its global restaurant technology platform. The collaboration uses AWS to power Byte by Yum! to connect digital ordering, point-of-sale systems, kitchen displays, inventory and delivery.
• Google Cloud: In 2024, KFC Mexico announced a three-year agreement with Google Cloud to deploy advanced data analytics and machine learning. The platform analyses customer habits to build hyper-personalised menu offers that have been based on consumption patterns and consumer behaviour.  
• Celestra: Celestra partnered with KFC to deliver large‑scale, multi‑site technology rollouts across its UK estate. Through tailored project management, the company says it ensured every site received fully configured, plug‑and‑play hardware designed to minimise disruption and accelerate go‑live operations.