Carl’s Jr. Chain President Quits to Join Hardee’s : Management: The departure of Donald E. Doyle from CKE Restaurants is another in a series of upheavals in its top ranks.

ANAHEIM — Management turmoil continued at CKE Restaurants Inc. Tuesday as President Donald E. Doyle resigned to take the chief operating officer’s job at a North Carolina-based hamburger chain.

Doyle, the chief executive who joined the Carl’s Jr. chain in late 1992 as the hand-picked successor to Carl’s Jr. founder Carl N. Karcher, will join Hardee’s Food Systems Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., which has 4,000 restaurants in 40 states, on Nov. 1.

“Don Doyle stepped into CKE at a pivotal time in its development and made significant contributions,” said Chairman William P. Foley II, who will serve as chief executive officer after Doyle leaves later this month.

Karcher, the 78-year-old chairman emeritus, said the company he founded more than a half century ago is “going to go back and build sales. . . . That’s what we have to do. I would hope that this (resignation) means that we can go back to business.”

It’s been anything but business as usual for CKE Restaurants in recent months.

Speculation about Doyle’s future at the company mounted on Monday when CKE Restaurants announced that Tom Thompson, a Bay Area Carl’s Jr. franchisee, had been appointed to the newly created post of chief operating officer.

Also on Monday, Foley said that Karcher was returning to his cherished role as the company’s television pitchman, and that the burger chain had abandoned an ill-fated bid to compete with major chains on price--a strategy strongly advocated by Doyle.

These decisions come nearly a year to the day when Karcher was forced out as chairman during a bitter board fight over the burger chain’s strategic direction. Foley invited Karcher back as chairman emeritus in December after taking a controlling interest in the fast-food company and being elected to the top post.

During Doyle’s 21-month tenure, Carl’s Jr. struggled to reverse a lengthy revenue and earnings slide driven in large part by Irvine-based Taco Bell, which forced all fast-food restaurants to cut costs. Doyle presided over a corporate restructuring and helped fashion a value-oriented menu that was introduced early this year.

While Karcher and Doyle agreed that the fast-food company had to cut its operating costs, they disagreed on how to position the 650-restaurant chain that consumers long had known for its relatively expensive but distinctive menu.

“I hoped that (the value menu) would work, but, in my heart, I didn’t think it would,” Karcher said. “It turned out that it didn’t fly too well.”

Most franchisees who operate 258 of the chain’s restaurants welcomed news that Doyle was leaving and that the chain would again emphasize quality over lower price.

“You’re going to see the most united Carl’s Jr. that you’ve ever seen,” said Ed Giammarino, a San Diego County restaurant owner who on Tuesday took over from Thompson as the new president of the Carl’s Jr. franchisee association. “We’re going to be a real threat to the rest of this industry.”

Doyle, who gave notice Tuesday upon his return from a two-week vacation in Rome, said that Hardee’s first approached him in August through an executive search firm. Doyle traveled to North Carolina to meet Hardee’s executives and to Montreal-based Imasco Ltd., Hardee’s parent company.

Doyle said his interest was piqued because he had once worked with Jack Loughery, a now-retired Hardee’s executive who is credited with building the chain. “It’s an exciting chain with a financially strong parent company, and it’s got exciting prospects,” Doyle said. In the middle of negotiations, Doyle and his wife, Roberta, left for Italy. “When we got to Rome, the offer from Hardee’s was there,” Doyle said. “We took two weeks to talk about it, sorting through the options. It wasn’t an easy decision because I really like Carl’s and the people.”

Doyle also acknowledged that it had been difficult to take over the reins from Karcher, a fast-food industry legend. “There’s no question that it was a transition that had its fits and starts,” Doyle said.

Hardee’s recently reported $34 million in operating earnings and $1.28 billion in systemwide revenue for the quarter ended June 30. By comparison, CKE Restaurants reported $864,000 in net income and $105.3 million in revenue for its second quarter, ended Aug. 15.