Catherine Tan-Gillespie leads KFC in the US. Her first restaurant job was very different. At 13, she washed dishes at Beefeater in the UK. She earned £1.20 an hour. Later, she helped manage a restaurant. She was the first person in her family to go to university. She studied business at the University of Plymouth and finished in 1996.
She chose jobs to learn, not just to get more money or a bigger job title. Richard Branson, the man who started Virgin Group, was an example for her. She liked his new ideas and his care for people and customers. She left some companies because she could not be herself there. She liked the way people worked at KFC. She joined in 2015 and led work to help sell its food in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, she took this work worldwide. She became KFC’s leader in Canada in 2024 and its US leader in April 2025.
Tan-Gillespie likes young people’s wish to speak openly and ask for chances. She tells them to speak up for themselves and others, even when it feels difficult. Her advice is to take chances despite fear. For hard choices, she suggests asking what the worst possible result could be.
