Yum! Brands Announces Retirement Of Chairman, Non-Executive Chairman To Be Announced At Annual Shareholder Meeting

on Tuesday that its current Executive Chairman, David C. Novak, will retire from the company in May 2016. Shares of Yum Brands were trading lower by 0.29 percent at $71.82 Wednesday morning. Novak has been with the company since 1986 when he served as the Chief Marketing Officer for the company's Pizza Hut division. He also served as CEO of Yum Brands in 1999 when the company was known as Tricon Global. Novak has served as Chairman of Yum Brands since 2000 and was named Executive Chairman on January 1, 2015. A non-executive chairman will be appointing among Yum Brand's current Directors during the company's annual shareholder meeting. "I feel deeply privileged to have served over the years as Yum! Brands Chairman and CEO," Novak said in the press release. "As we target the separation of our China business by the end of 2016 and transition to two powerful, independent companies, it is a perfect time for me to complete my retirement. The two new companies will be led by strong, highly capable leaders, Greg Creed at YUM and Micky Pant at YUM China. I am completely confident both of them will take their businesses to the next level and I look forward to cheering them on and supporting them after my retirement. I truly believe these two companies present enormous growth potential in the years to come. Therefore, I plan to remain a shareholder of both companies and couldn't be more enthusiastic about these investments."