Dunkin' Brands Announces Appointment of Ginger Gregory as Chief Human Resources Officer

CANTON, Mass., March 26, 2012  /PRNewswire/ -- Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DNKN), the parent company of Dunkin' Donuts (DD) and Baskin-Robbins (BR), today announced the appointment of Ginger Gregory as  Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer.  She will join the Dunkin' Brands Executive Leadership Team and report directly to Dunkin' Brands' Chief Executive Officer Nigel Travis.

Gregory has held executive-level human resources positions for several multinational companies across a variety of industries. In her new role at Dunkin' Brands she will be responsible for global employee recruitment, training, compensation, benefits, and organizational development.  She will also serve as co-chair of Dunkin' Donuts' People's Subcommittee where she will lead the creation of  tools and programs designed to attract, hire, train, and develop restaurant managers and crewmembers. 

"At Dunkin' Brands, our goal is to offer an exceptional customer experience at our restaurants around the world, and that will only happen if we hire, develop and retain the best employees in the quick service restaurant industry," said Nigel Travis, Dunkin' Brands CEO and Dunkin' Donuts President. "With her executive leadership skills and her passion for organizational development, Ginger is eminently qualified to help us achieve that goal and, as a result, drive the global growth of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins."   

Gregory joins Dunkin' Brands from Novartis International AG, a multibillion-dollar healthcare solutions company, where she led a global team of human resources professionals. In that position, she was responsible for global staffing, talent management and field human resources, and served as a member of the Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics Executive Committee.  Prior to Novartis, Gregory held leadership positions at Novo Nordisk where she served as Senior Vice President, Corporate People & Organization at the company's global headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Earlier in her career, she held a variety of human resources generalist and specialist positions at Bristol Myers Squibb and served as consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton in the area of organization change and effectiveness.

"I am delighted to be joining Dunkin' Brands, a company with two of the world's best-loved brands and one of the premier franchising concepts in the world," said Gregory. "I look forward to working with the company leadership and our franchisee community to attract and retain great talent for Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins restaurants around the world."

Gregory received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, a Master of Arts in Philosophy, and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the George Washington University, where she also served as a Lecturer in Psychology, Research Assistant and Graduate Teaching Fellow.

About Dunkin' Brands

With more than 16,800 points of distribution in nearly 60 countries worldwide, Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DNKN) is one of the world's leading franchisors of quick service restaurants (QSR) serving hot and cold coffee and baked goods, as well as hard-serve ice cream. At the end of 2011, Dunkin' Brands' nearly 100 percent franchised business model included more than 10,000 Dunkin' Donuts restaurants and more than 6,500 Baskin-Robbins restaurants. For the full-year 2011, the company had system-wide sales of approximately $8.4 billion. Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. is headquartered in Canton, Mass.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained herein are not based on historical fact and are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the applicable securities laws and regulations.  Generally, these statements can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "feel," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "project," "should," "would," and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.   By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future.  These risk and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the ongoing level of profitability of franchisees and licensees; changes in working relationship with our franchisees and licensees and the actions of our franchisees and licensees; our master franchisees' relationships with sub-franchisees; the strength of our brand in the markets in which we compete; changes in competition within the quick service restaurant segment of the food industry; changes in consumer behavior resulting from changes in technologies or alternative methods of delivery; economic and political conditions in the countries where we operate; our substantial indebtedness; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; consumer preferences, spending patterns and demographic trends; the success of our growth strategy and international development; changes in commodity and food prices, particularly coffee, dairy products and sugar, and the other operating costs; shortages of coffee; failure of our network and information technology systems; interruptions or shortages in the supply of products to our franchisees and licensees; the impact of food borne-illness or food safety issues or adverse public or medial opinions regarding the health effects of consuming our products; our ability to collect royalty payments from our franchisees and licensees; the ability of our franchisees and licensees to open new restaurants and keep existing restaurants in operation; our ability to retain key personnel; any inability to protect consumer credit card data and catastrophic events.

Forward-looking statements reflect management's analysis as of the date of this press release.  Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations are more fully described in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the section headed "Risk Factors" in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K. Except as required by applicable law, we do not undertake to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc.