Maurice Cooper
As Chief Marketing Officer for Wingstop Restaurants, Inc., Maurice oversees all global marketing strategy and execution for the award-winning chain, which boasts more than 1,100 outlets around the world and over $1 billion in system revenue.
In his prior role with InterContinental Hotels Group, Maurice was the global leader of a $12 billion portfolio of four brands, with an estate of more than 3,500 hotels around the world. He is responsible for global brand definition, strategy, and innovation across the entire hotel guest experience. Additionally, Maurice is an architect of global marketing communications platforms delivered globally across various demand generating channels. His primary focus is delivering the long-term portfolio commercial performance, equity leadership, and an innovation agenda that fuels growing guest satisfaction, franchise owner confidence, and increased global investment.
Previously at IHG, Maurice served as Vice President, Holiday Inn Americas, we he was responsible for the delivery of Holiday Inn brand strategy, guest experience, and all marketing communications to support an estate of nearly 800 hotels located in the Western Hemisphere. In his first 18 months at IHG, Maurice re-invigorated this iconic brand, bringing transformative change to the Holiday Inn brand’s food and beverage and design strategies, and launching the first brand-centric marketing campaign in five years. As a part of this effort, Maurice created and became Executive Producer of “Growing America” a six-episode television series airing on HLN, showcasing how Holiday Inn has helped fuel entrepreneurship across the US with a non-profit partner, MBAs Across America.
Maurice joined IHG from The Coca-Cola Company where he spent nine years as a brand leader of the Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Coke Zero brands, as well as a General Manager of the company’s Venturing and Emerging Brands business unit (Honest Tea, illy coffee, ZICO coconut water and Core Power protein drink). Maurice led the Coke Zero brand to become the fastest growing, most successful sparkling beverage in the U.S., delivering nearly $2 billion in sales. With an aggressive expansion vision, he helped to secure the brands first sustained distribution at McDonald’s, and national scale at 7-11, Subway, as well as Hardee’s & Carl’s Jr. Maurice was also a co-author of the growth strategy that turned around the multi-billion dollar Sprite brands business. As a result of this effort, Maurice helped to reposition the brand, launching the first Sprite shopper strategy in a decade, new product innovation, and commercial terms with bottling partners. He also developed breakthrough-marketing platforms, including the Sprite Step-Off, a 25-city, national step show competition awarding $2 million in college scholarships that was chronicled as an eight-episode TV series on MTV2. This resulted in Maurice being recognized with prestigious global marketing awards from AdWeek, the Internationalist, Mediavest Global, and WOMMA.
Having also worked at General Mills, Procter & Gamble, and The Boston Consulting Group, consulting in strategy, M&A, portfolio management, and operations, Maurice has amassed nearly 20 years of dynamic brand building experiences. Maurice holds an MBA from Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia, as a Consortium of Graduate Study in Management Fellow, and a BA in Marketing from Morehouse College, where he was a proud initiate of the Alpha Rho chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.
Maurice is married to his beautiful wife of 15 years, Erika, and is father to two amazing kids, Kayli Joy, 12, and Elijah 11.