Steve’s breakdown: Restaurant Brands International hired a marketing veteran to help fill the gap left by Fernando Machado’s April departure. Now he’s gone already. What the heck is going on over there. If you watch the video of the interview of their CEO that was post in July, everything seems to be great but we don’t buy it. Get your research team on it. Something Big Is Going To Happen!!

BTW: Their email format is {F}{Last}@RBI.com

MIAMI, FL: After a relatively short stint as global chief brand officer of Restaurant Brands International, Paloma Azulay’s tenure has ended at the parent company of Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons.

The marketing veteran previously spent 14 years shaping Coca-Cola’s marketing before joining RBI in 2018. Her exit from the company comes nearly seven months after stepping into RBI’s top marketing role in April.

Azulay took on the role to help fill a gap left by the exit of her former boss, Fernando Machado, after he left RBI to join Activision Blizzard following a celebrated run of award-winning creative brand stewardship.

To be sure, Machado had an outsize role at Burger King. (“Fer is not replaceable, he’s a unicorn,” one source opined to Adweek.) Ultimately, his duties were shared by Azulay along with Ellie Doty, who was named Burger King CMO in June 2020.

Before shifting to Burger King, the Brazilian-born Azulay served as the global chief marketing officer for Popeyes, and held a similar role at Tim Hortons prior to shifting to focus on the fried chicken chain.

An RBI spokesperson issued the following statement to Adweek about Azulay’s exit:

“Paloma Azulay left the company. She joined RBI in 2018 working on the creative team at Tim Hortons, Canada. She has subsequently held a variety of roles including CMO of Tim Hortons, Global CMO of Popeyes, and most recently Global Chief Brand Officer, RBI.”

The company’s statement said Zurich-based Antonio Marques, who had been serving as RBI’s CMO for Europe, Middle East and Africa region, will assume the chief brand officer role.

Marques joined RBI in November 2019 after spending nearly 12 years across multiple roles at Danone.

This story is developing, and Adweek will update it as more information becomes available.