McDonald's Corp. announced Monday that James Cantalupo, the company's chairman and chief executive, died of an heart attack this morning in Orlando, Florida. Cantalupo died while attending a global meeting of McDonald's franchisees in Orlando, director Andrew McKenna said in a statement released by the company.

He was expected to address franchisees with a speech at 9:30 a.m. to start the convention.

The board of directors elected President and Chief Operating Officer Charlie Bell, 43, as chief executive and president. Directors also announced that Andrew J. McKenna, 74, the board's presiding director, had been named non-executive chairman.

Cantalupo joined McDonald's in 1974, and he was appointed president of McDonald's International in 1987. In 1991, Cantalupo was made president and chief executive officer. In January 2003, after the company suffered its first quarterly loss since going public in 1965, Cantalupo resumed control from chief executive Jack Greenberg. He halted an expansion strategy and turned the focus on quality control. Since then, McDonald's performance has greatly improved. Sales rose 11 percent last year to 17.1 billion dollars from 15.4 billion dollars in 2002. Profits climbed 65 percent to 1.47 billion dollars. ��

Source: Xinhua