Speaker > Biography

Biography of Samuel (Sam) Su, WG’83

J. Samuel (Sam) Su is the President of the China Division for Yum! Brands, Inc.

Mr. Su joined KFC in May 1989 as its Regional Marketing Director for North Pacific and doubled up as Acting General Manager for China in December 1989, when China KFC had only four units.

As the China business continues to grow in the 90s, Mr. Su gradually gave up his marketing role and shifted his focus to managing the China business.  In 1994, Mr. Su also assumed responsibility for Pizza Hut when it was combined with the KFC business by then parent company, PepsiCo.  In October 1997, PepsiCo spun off its restaurant business, including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands, to give birth to Tricon Global Restaurants, whose name was later changed to Yum! Brands, Inc. in 2002 when it acquired two additional brands – A&W and Long John Silver.  Yum! Brands, Inc. is listed on NYSE (YUM).

Reporting into the China Division are the YUM businesses in Mainland China, Thailand and in addition the KFC business in Taiwan, all major equity markets of YUM!

Mr. Su was born in Taiwan and graduated from National Taiwan University with a Chemical Engineering degree.  He also received a Master of Science (Chemical Engineering) degree from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Before joining KFC, Mr. Su worked for, among other companies, Proctor & Gamble in Germany and Taiwan.