Burger King Profile - Evelyn Miranda-Cox
To celebrate Women’s History Month & International Women’s Day, we are highlighting some of the inspiring women at Burger King.
Evelyn Miranda Cox has been with Burger King since 1981, starting as a part-time Team Member while in high school and running a store by the time she was 18! Since then, she has held many roles both in restaurant and working in the field, from Sales Operations Coach to Franchisee Manager, Operations Partner (OP), and her current role as a Franchise Business Partner (FBP).
The first Franchisee that she worked for at just 16 was a single store operator at the time and is now still a mentor and friend. He was the one who encouraged her to enter the management side of the business, and even helped to pay for some of her business classes.
Throughout her career at BK, Evelyn has fostered valuable relationships and achieved many great accomplishments, including winning the Field Excellence Award that celebrates the top performing BK Field Team member across all divisions based on operations performance. While she was earlier in her career, she was put into a restaurant that had been rated “Needs Improvement.” Within six months she helped them climb to a rating of “Excellent” and within 3 years, sales had doubled!
At another point, she worked with a Franchisee who had 5 restaurants and wanted to grow their scope, but their operations needed some improvement. She stepped in to help train a District Manager on weekends, and that District Manager is still in the BK system a decade later, with 25 restaurants!
Her favorite part of her roles has always been working in restaurants with the teams, whether it be helping them understand the store operations or fixing problems as they arise. Evelyn was once told, “When we fix things, we are fixing them forever, not just for today.” She still lives by that and shares it with the stores that she works with in Southern California, helping them think about how they can invest in their restaurants and teams to ensure they’re setting the brand up for success in the future.
When asked about advice for someone in her shoes at the beginning of her career, Evelyn recommends to always network and reach out to your peers – everyone has something valuable to offer and great ideas to share. She also added that you should never have the mentality that you know it all – “The day I stop learning is the day I need to retire!”
Throughout her experience in restaurants, she has had to work hard to achieve her success and remembers early in her career being 1 of 3 women in a room of 100 men. Evelyn is thrilled to see the progress in representation since then and admires the female leaders within the company that demonstrate there are opportunities for everyone if you are willing to work hard.