The West Point graduate who turned around McDonald’s largest regions and led a national eye-care company now takes on the hardest assignment of his career: changing how surgeons learn to operate.

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC / ACCESS Newswire / November 11, 2026 / David L. Thomas II, West Point graduate, decorated operations executive and former McDonald’s Field Office VP, today announced the next chapter in a career built on turnarounds: leading a startup whose technology allows human cadavers to behave like living patients, and using it to change a field where training methods have not fundamentally evolved in generations.

It is the third act in a career that has already spanned three industries. David has spent more than three decades doing one thing exceptionally well: taking underperforming operations and turning them into the best in the room. What is different now is the room itself.

From West Point to the Front of the Battalion

David graduated from West Point and was named Distinguished Graduate of his branch specialty at the Air Defense SHORAD School at Fort Bliss. At his first duty assignment he was rated the most outstanding lieutenant in his battalion. He went on to command a unit at Fort Meade and led it to the top rating in the battalion. The pattern of arriving somewhere, assessing what was broken, and fixing it followed him into every role that came after.

Three Industries, One Method

After the military, David joined Leo Burnett advertising in Chicago, working on accounts including RCA, M&M Mars, Kraft and United Airlines, each delivering measurable category growth. He then moved into marketing at McDonald’s Corporation, where he became a top one percent leader and a recipient of the President’s Award. He then was selected for an accelerated operations program. As Director of Operations for the Houston Region, he moved the team from the bottom of the U.S. rankings to the top three in two years. As President of Puerto Rico, he turned that market around. As Chief Operations Officer at Boston Market, he helped manage a complete brand turnaround before the business was sold at a premium just ahead of the 2008 recession. In addition, he was on the cover of Hospitality Technology Magazine and was a keynote speaker at their event in Las Vegas.

A Record That Still Stands

His next pivot was into healthcare. As Chief Operating Officer and then Co-Chief Executive Officer of LCA Vision, David led another turnaround, earned a master’s degree in business leadership, and was inducted into the Sigma Epsilon Rho Honor Society with a 4.0 GPA. He then returned to McDonald’s and led the Dallas team to 24 consecutive months as best in the country across all 22 U.S. regions on McKinsey’s Big 6 Metrics, a record that has never been matched. Following a reorganization, he led more than 1,700 locations doing over $5 billion in annual sales.

Service Beyond the Boardroom

That record of service has never been limited to the boardroom. Over four years, David facilitated $3.5 million in in-kind gifts to the Wounded Warrior Project, the Free LASIK Surgery to the warrior and primary care-giver. He also served as a founding member of the Advisory Board established to create the Buffalo Soldier Monument at West Point, a tribute to the legacy of the Black soldiers who served in the U.S. Army following the Civil War. Both commitments reflect the same orientation that has defined his professional life: showing up for institutions and people that matter, and doing the work that others leave undone.

The Hardest Assignment Yet

David now leads a startup built around technology that allows donated human specimens to behave like living patients. Using circulated expired blood, a mechanical pump, and a contrast agent called BriteVu that maps blood vessels through CT scans, the platform creates a realistic, low-toxicity environment for anatomical and surgical training without putting live patients at risk. The goal is to accelerate how quickly medical practitioners develop skills and to change a field whose training methods have gone largely unchanged for generations.

“This is by far the biggest and most difficult challenge I’ve ever had,” David says. “It is very hard to change long-term health views on how medical training is or how it should be executed.”

It is, by his own description, a harder problem than any turnaround he has been handed. It is also the same problem he has solved three times before: capable people held back by a system that was never redesigned. He has spent a career betting that the system is the thing that changes. Few would bet against him now.

About David L. Thomas II

David L. Thomas II is a West Point graduate, U.S. Army veteran and operations executive whose career spans advertising, restaurant operations and healthcare. He has served as Director of Operations and President of Puerto Rico at McDonald’s Corporation, Chief Operations Officer at Boston Market, and Chief Operating Officer and Co-Chief Executive Officer at LCA Vision. He holds a master’s degree in business leadership and is a member of the Sigma Epsilon Rho Honor Society. He currently leads Global Anatomix, a medical training venture developing perfused human tissue platforms for surgical and anatomical education.

Media Contact

David L. Thomas II
CEO, Global Anatomix & Scarlet Imaging LLC
dthomas@globalanatomix.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidthomas11/
Website: GlobalAnatomiX

SOURCE: David L. Thomas II

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David L. Thomas II