Dunkin' Brands Strengthens Senior Leadership Team With New Chief Global Customer and Marketing Officer

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John Costello Appointed to Senior Leadership Team to Help Drive Future Growth

CANTON, Mass., Oct. 8 // PRNewswire // -- Dunkin' Brands, the parent company of two of the world's most recognized and loved brands, Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, today strengthened its senior management team with the addition of respected consumer and retail industry veteran John Costello to the newly-created position of Chief Global Customer and Marketing Officer. He will join the Dunkin' Brands Executive Leadership Team reporting directly to Dunkin' Brands' Chief Executive Officer Nigel Travis.

"John Costello is one of the most talented marketers and brand builders in the retail industry in America," said Dunkin' Brands' CEO Nigel Travis. "His marketing expertise, combined with his extensive operations background and proven ability to deliver results, makes him uniquely qualified to help further drive our brands' growth and success worldwide."

Mr. Costello will oversee Dunkin' Donuts' strategic worldwide marketing efforts and brand identity, serving as head of the Dunkin' Donuts U.S. marketing team and partnering with the operations team to further drive sales. He will also provide functional direction to the Dunkin' Donuts international marketing team, as well as Baskin-Robbins U.S. and international marketing teams. With John's arrival, Frances Allen, Dunkin' Donuts Brand Marketing Officer, has decided to step down after two years of distinguished leadership. During Allen's tenure, she helped solidify Dunkin' Donuts' position as a coffee leader, launched the successful DDSMART(TM) menu of healthier choices and developed award-winning marketing campaigns designed to drive traffic, promote the company's everyday value offerings and further underscore that "America Runs on Dunkin(TM)."

"I am thrilled to be joining Dunkin' Brands, a company with two of the world's best-loved brands," said Mr. Costello. "I am confident that we can build on our already strong brand position to strengthen our customer relationships and continue to deliver results in both existing and new markets both domestically and internationally."

One of the early pioneers of multi-channel marketing, Mr. Costello has served as the Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing at The Home Depot, Senior Executive Vice President of Sears, and Chief Global Marketing Officer of Yahoo. He has also led several companies, including serving as President of Nielsen Marketing Research U.S. Earlier in his career, Mr. Costello held a number of senior marketing and brand management positions at The Procter & Gamble Company and also served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Pepsi-Cola, USA.

Mr. Costello was named one of the 30 Most Influential People in Marketing by Advertising Age, one of the Top 10 Merchants by DSN Retailing Today and was elected to the Retail Advertising Hall of Fame. He is also a director of The Ace Hardware Corporation.

In June 2009, Dunkin' Brands celebrated the opening of its 15,000th store worldwide. The company's steady and strategic growth strategy includes expanding in existing markets while entering new cities throughout the world.

About Dunkin' Brands, Inc.

With more than 15,000 points of distribution in 44 countries worldwide, Dunkin' Brands, Inc. is renowned for its leadership in the quick quality category. At the end of 2008, there were 8,835 Dunkin' Donuts franchised restaurants and 6,013 Baskin-Robbins franchised restaurants and the company had system-wide sales of approximately $6.9 billion. Dunkin' Brands, Inc. is headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts.

SOURCE Dunkin' Brands, Inc.

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