McDonald’s, the world’s leading global foodservice retailer with over 36,000 locations serving approximately 69 million customers daily across 100+ countries, has announced the appointment of Pragya Singh as Director, People Partner, effective April.
Based in Hyderabad, Pragya joins McDonald’s from PepsiCo, where she spent close to five years and most recently held the position of Associate Director.
In her new role, Pragya will be responsible for driving people-centric initiatives, organizational design, and HR business partnering across McDonald’s India operations. She will also support corporate functional leadership and staff, with a focus on leadership development and people management strategies.
Sharing the news on LinkedIn, Pragya wrote:“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Director People Partner at McDonald’s! Very happy to join the McFamily. Grateful for the opportunity! Thank you Deshant Kaila, Danielle Harris, MBA, and Tiffanie Boyd.”
A dynamic HR leader with nearly two decades of experience, Pragya brings proven expertise in leading HR functions for large, distributed workforces—having managed people strategies for over 3,300 employees. Her experience spans talent strategy, organisational change, and building leadership capability across geographies.
On the other hand, Westlife Foodworld Ltd, the owner and operator of McDonald’s restaurants is also expanding its presence across West and South India. It recently inaugurated a new outlet in Madurai, taking its total presence in Tamil Nadu to 38 locations, the company said.
It is interesting to note that over 80% of McDonald’s restaurants globally are owned and operated by independent local business owners.