Susser Holdings Corporation today named Steven DeSutter executive vice president of Susser and president and CEO of the company’s retail unit, Stripes LLC, the company said.

Most recently, DeSutter was an advisor and served as interim executive vice president of operations for Quiznos, a multinational sandwich franchise with roughly 5,000 restaurants. He also held past positions as executive vice president of Burger King Corporation and president of Burger King for Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, overseeing about 2,200 company and franchise stores with annual sales of more than $2 billion.

"Steve is exactly the kind of talented executive we wanted to attract to help us complete the integration of Town & Country Food Stores, move those stores to the single Stripes brand – and over the longer term drive growth for the company overall," said Sam Susser, Susser Holdings president and CEO. "He has a lot of great experience managing big brands at large, multi-unit companies in the quick service restaurant industry, which is a big part of our business.”

Susser said DeSutter’s roles at Burger King included management of the integration of hundreds of restaurants operating in more than 35 countries under a single brand standard and common operating system. DeSutter and his team dramatically enhanced the customer experience at Burger King, Susser said, and improved operations quality and set a record for new store openings. They also increased revenues and reduced overhead.

At Quiznos, DeSutter led the management team in all aspects of a guest-focused operating system to enable franchise store owners to improve customer service, Susser said, adding that DeSutter also helped pioneer a new catering and delivery service that extends the store beyond the traditional four walls and is expected to significantly increase sales over the next few years.

"We are delighted Steve has agreed to join us as head of our retail organization, and we expect him to bring a lot of new energy, smart thinking and build additional momentum in our retail business," Susser said.

DeSutter has more than 30 years of experience in various executive management, marketing and finance roles. Before he worked in quick service restaurants, he had a strategic consulting role in various transactional and corporate workout projects in the airline, banking and management consulting industries.

He began his career at British Petroleum, where he worked in a variety of different operations, marketing and finance roles during his 18 years at the company.

"I couldn’t be more excited about joining Susser Holdings," DeSutter said. "Sam and his team have built a really strong business, one that is poised for continued growth organically and through additional acquisitions. The way the company values its employees and its customers is to be admired. I am proud to be joining this team."

An Indiana native, DeSutter holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Niagara University in upstate New York. He’ll relocate to Corpus Christi, Texas, where Susser Holdings is headquartered.