CHICAGO — Two McDonald’s comms leaders — Artemis Bakopoulos Hiss and Jesse Lewin — are switching roles as part of the function’s push to strengthen leadership capabilities.


Hiss, who has been leading corporate comms for three-plus years, will now serve as head of global media relations. The reverse is true for Lewin, who joined McDonald’s from Burson-Marsteller in 2017.

“An important part of our strategy to optimize the strength of our team — and to support and develop McDonald’s communicators — is to make use of lateral moves. When individuals take on new assignments, the business benefits by their expertise being applied to new areas of focus,” CCO Michael Gonda said in a staff memo. “Equally, people are able to both grow as practitioners and forge a continuous path for development.”

Gonda said Hiss, who has been with the fast-food giant for nearly 16 years, “is a trusted advisor known for being able to thread the needle between communications strategy and execution. Her leadership has been invaluable as we’ve built out our capabilities to be more purposeful in our proactive storytelling efforts – internally and externally.”

He lauded Lewin for “building teams that have expanded and improved McDonald’s relationships with senior editors and reporters at global and local news organizations. These efforts have resulted in more accurate, balanced and in most cases positive coverage of McDonald’s efforts to meaningfully impact the communities we serve.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing how this leadership move will enable us to make an even deeper impact on the business and the development of leaders across the entire Communications team,” Gonda wrote.