Bethany Tate Cornell

Bethany Tate Cornell joined McDonald’s in November 2020 as Sr. Vice President - Chief Learning and Development Officer, leading the talent development strategy for McDonald’s internal global workforce and corporate owned restaurants. She leads key initiatives, including digital learning, that accelerate and elevate learner experiences throughout 14,000 US restaurants and restaurants located in 120 countries globally. Bethany leads Hamburger University across 8 global locations, providing experiential and virtual learning to upskill restaurant management and crew members.

Prior to McDonald’s, Bethany spent 30 years leading talent development and learning innovations at six companies, including Boeing, GE, Gap, Ethan Allen, IBM and The Interlock Group.

Most recently at Boeing, Bethany was Vice President of Leadership, Learning and Organizational Capability (LLOC), where she was responsible for implementing the enterprise learning, culture transformation and workforce development strategies in support of Boeing’s business imperatives for 150K employees in 65 countries. Bethany served as on-site executive with oversight and accountability for the Boeing Leadership Center (BLC) and campus. While at Boeing, Bethany led global expansion of Boeing Learning portfolio including two global learning campuses (UK, Singapore), increased local offerings and reach 3x, launched Boeing Learning Ambassador network of 100+ non-HR leaders in all non-US regions. She drove the democratization of learning building the Boeing Digital Campus providing digitally accessible learning and micro certifications through partnership with Degreed.com reaching 51K active global users.

She serves on the Chief Learning and Talent Officer Board of The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), focusing on global issues for learning and talent. She is also a member of the Rework America Business Network (RABN) focused on reskilling and upskilling our national workforce.

Bethany is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) and Ithaca College, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education and communications media and a Master of Science in corporate communications and instructional design. Cornell serves as an alumni board member and student mentor for Ithaca College Park School of Communications.