Domino’s Pizza uplifts Kerri Hayman to CEO role

Domino’s Pizza has promoted its chief operating officer Kerri Hayman to chief executive officer for ANZ.

Centre: Kerri Hayman

The switch is effective immediately according to the major pizza franchise, making Hayman the first female CEO of the company.

Domino’s Pizza said Hayman steps into the role after more than 36 years with the company and takes over from long-time employee, Don Meij.

Most recently, Meij has worked dual roles as group CEO and ANZ CEO for the past year.

With the appointment of Hayman, the company explained Meij will “spend more time in Domino’s international markets as the group CEO and managing director.”

According to Hayman’s LinkedIn profile, she “started my journey at Domino's Pizza at age 15 as a pizza maker” and “never looked back.”

Hayman took on the ANZ chief operating role in October last year after 14 years working for the Domino’s brand internationally, including as the operations director for UK-listed Domino’s Pizza Group and as a franchisee of 14 stores in the US.  

As COO for ANZ, the company said Hayman “delivered the highest customer satisfaction scores and product quality scores (as rated by customers) in more than three years, with improved sales and profitability for franchise partners and corporate stores.”

Hayman said in a company statement, “When I returned to Australia, I was coming home in more ways than one; I grew up in this business and worked alongside so many team members who are now some of our most successful and longest-serving franchise partners.”

“My experience as a team member, in operations, and as multi-store owner, has fostered enormous empathy for the rewards and challenges that are an essential part of this business.

“I believe it has also helped me build credibility with our franchise partners, store managers and team members and now, in this more public-facing role, I hope to build that same rapport with our customers, and our shareholders.

“Over the past year, our customers have told us our product quality and service has never been better.

Hayman added, “With the new products we will be launching combined with an ongoing focus on product quality and value.”

Last year, Adrian Westwood, head of CRM APAC at Domino’s Pizza said pushing personalisation projects at scale requires customer data. 

Speaking at at a Twilio Signal conference in Singapore, Westwood told attendees, "With that we can use to build out our implicit data sets, where we start to learn more about our customers and getting to target them a lot more precision with our personalisation.” 

Domino’s chairman Jack Cowin also said, “We are confident we have the right leadership for the future, and with Kerri’s appointment, the best person for the job.

“The board of directors are thrilled that Domino’s provides an unrivalled opportunity to help team members grow and prosper, whether it’s a part-time job, as an award-winning franchise partner, an executive – or all three,” Cowin said.

Hayman holds awards such as International Supervisor of the Year and Domino’s Woman of the Year, plus other accolades including overseeing the international record for the most pizzas sold in a day.

She is also a member of Domino’s Pizza International’s Global Operations Council and has set up a Global Operations Board for DMP, to share best practices between international markets.

In her current role, she launched the Women in Domino’s grant, which will support seven young female store managers to become franchise partners.

According to the pizza joint, this program is now being expanded to develop emerging leaders from store managers to entrepreneurs.