Ray Kroc founded the McDonald’s Corporation after acquiring the company from Richard and Maurice McDonald.
Kroc was a milkshake-machine salesman who visited the brothers’ San Bernardino restaurant in 1954. Impressed by the speed and consistency of their operation, he became their national franchising agent. He opened a McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
Kroc later bought the brothers’ business rights in 1961. Under his leadership, McDonald’s developed a standardized franchise system and expanded throughout the United States and internationally.
The brothers created the original restaurant system and menu model, so they remain central to McDonald’s history. Kroc’s role was to scale that system into a large franchise corporation, which is why sources distinguish the founders from the company’s later corporate founder.