Dhiren is the Strategy & Innovation Director for KFC UK & Ireland. Most recently as Retail Director, Dhiren evolved the retail planning approach which helped maintain a healthy transaction base. He was also the architect of the Delivery strategy, from spearheading key strategic negotiations with aggregator partners to developing and launching KFC’s owned channel Delivery proposition.
In this new role, Dhiren will drive thought leadership on brand growth opportunities, elevating KFC’s approach on menu, new occasions, and product innovation. He will also be partnering with cross-functional teams as part of the customer experience transformation to help KFC win with customers.
Prior to this, Dhiren has led various advertising & retail initiatives for the brand: leading the Comeback campaign featuring the Colonel post-chicken crisis, launching several cult innovations to market, and leading the campaign that brought meaning back to “finger-lickin’ good”. These have been widely recognised in the industry, earning Dhiren a nomination for The Drum’s Future 50 list of marketers in 2020.
Dhiren is a heart-led leader who is passionate about developing talent. In the last year, he has built a new team, attracting talent for it both internally and externally, and moulding it to be cohesive, motivated, & high-performing in such a short amount of time. This earned him the People Grower Award within in the business, recognising his brand of people leadership. Dhiren comes from the Philippines and has started his career in Southeast Asia in management consulting, then at Unilever managing a few global and local roles – from driving digital transformation for Knorr to expanding Ben & Jerry’s reach across Asia and Latin America.
Outside of work, you will most likely find him in a cycling studio riding a bike that does not go anywhere, at the cinema watching a film (he averages 50 in one year), or at the theatre catching a West End show.
