Ex-CKE Restaurants President Ends Stint as Hardee’s Executive

Former CKE Restaurants Inc. President Donald E. Doyle has resigned as chief operating officer at the Hardee’s Food Systems Inc. after less than a year on the job, a Hardee’s spokeswoman said Monday.

“Mr. Doyle is leaving to pursue other business interests,” according to the spokeswoman for the Raleigh, N.C., hamburger chain. Doyle will be replaced by Steve McManus, effective Sept. 1.

Before joining Hardee’s, which has 4,000 restaurants in 40 states, Doyle served as the handpicked successor to Carl’s Jr. founder Carl N. Karcher. But Doyle’s two-year tenure at the Anaheim burger chain ended October, 1994, when Doyle skirmished with Karcher over how to reverse a revenue and profit slide.

In 1993, Doyle and a majority of CKE Restaurants’ board members forced Karcher out as chairman during a bitter dispute over the chain’s strategic direction. Karcher subsequently returned as chairman emeritus after businessman William P. Foley II acquired a controlling stake in the burger chain and was elected chairman.

Doyle was not available on Monday to comment on his career plans.