Tanya Hill-Holliday is the first African-American woman to own and operate a McDonald’s in Philadelphia. She had previously started as a part-time crew member at McDonald’s while working her way through college.
She scrubbed toilets in Baltimore, but she defied all odds to become a franchise owner. “I was told I wasn’t supposed to be here; I was called every name but my name,” Hill-Holliday recalled to CBS.
“You are in my very first McDonald’s that I purchased in 2005; that’s the Rosemont McDonald’s right next to Villanova University,” Hill-Holliday told the outlet in an interview.
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As she worked her way through college and built her entrepreneurial skills, little did she know that she would one day become the first black woman to own a McDonald’s in Philadelphia, according to 6abc. Now decades later, she owns 12 McDonald’s restaurants, including all three on the Main Line and one in Allentown.
Hill-Holliday has been in the McDonald’s system for 44 years and has worked in 13 positions, including vice president. She entered the management training program at McDonald’s after her education at Morgan State University and rose through the corporate ranks as well as McDonald’s locations around the United States.
Starting as a crew member at McDonald’s in Baltimore, Maryland, she said, “I always enjoyed what I was doing, as difficult as it was to be told, ‘You got to clean a table, you got to clean the toilets, you got to scrub the baseboards. You got to do…’ I did it.”
She has achieved great success, which she now shares with her staff of over 600 and others who look up to her.
As National Black McDonald’s Operators Association Chair and CEO of 168 U.S. entities, Hill-Holliday hopes her story serves as an inspiration for young people in their first jobs.
“Stay motivated, stay encouraged, stay prayed up. I stay prayed up all the time,” she said.
