Dunkin' Brands, the parent company of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, announced the appointment of Ken Chaisson to the newly created position of vice president of IT, retail technology deployment, and support services.

In his new role, Chaisson will report directly to Dan Sheehan, senior vice president and chief information officer for Dunkin' Brands. Chaisson will lead the IT teams responsible for the company's information technology communications, retail technology deployment, support and centralized point of sales menu and item management. He will work closely with the IT leadership team, operations, development and marketing departments, retail technology partners, and the Dunkin' Donuts Franchisee IT Sub-Committee to help domestic franchisees better serve their guests.

"Ken has demonstrated success and extensive knowledge of retail systems and technology, and he will have a significant and positive impact on our brands," Sheehan says. "He is a great addition to an already talented Dunkin' Brands IT team."

"I am very excited to be joining Dunkin' Brands, a premier quick-service restaurant company that is on the forefront of leveraging technology to help improve company systems and store-level systems to drive franchisee profitability," Chaisson says. "I look forward to working with this strong and experienced IT team to further improve corporate and retail technology solutions to better serve our employees and franchise operators."

Chaisson most recently was the vice president of information technology for Legal Sea Foods. Prior to that, he held a variety of IT management roles at ZOOTS, Reebok International Ltd., and Staples. Earlier in his career, he was an IS director at Designs Inc.

He holds an M.B.A. from Babson College and a B.S. in Computer Science from Boston College. A native of Massachusetts, Chaisson resides with his family in Walpole, Massachusetts.