Panera Brands names restaurant veteran as board chairman
Panera Brands Inc. is overhauling its board of directors and welcoming a new chairman.
The parent company of Panera Bread, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Caribou Coffee has announced that José Cil has been appointed chairman of its board of directors. In this role, Cil will work closely with Panera’s leadership team to “drive growth and differentiated value and experiences” for guests across its portfolio. He succeeds Patrick Grismer, who served as independent board chair since June 2024 and was recently nominated to serve on the board of Krispy Kreme.
Cil most recently served as CEO of Restaurant Brands International (RBI), one of the world’s largest quick-service restaurant companies, which owns the Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs brands. In that role, he helped grow the business to more than $40 billion in system-wide sales and 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. During his tenure, he oversaw the global expansion of Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons, the acceleration of unit and same-store sales growth of Popeyes in the United States, the “reinvigoration” of Tim Hortons in Canada, and the acquisition of Firehouse Subs.
“José brings to Panera more than two decades of restaurant industry leadership experience and an impressive track record of innovation and execution to Panera, and I’m tremendously excited to work alongside him to continue powering our growth,” said Paul Carbone, who became CEO of Panera Brands earlier this spring. “I look forward to working with José and the leadership team to build a strong culture, to deliver an exceptional guest experience and to drive franchise profitability. I would also like to thank Patrick for all of his partnership during his time on the Board and wish him the very best.”
Prior to leading RBI, Cil served in various leadership positions over the course of a 20-year career at Burger King, including as global president of Burger King and president of Burger King EMEA. He also currently serves as a board member of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. and private equity-owned Restaurant Brands Europe.
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“Panera Bread, Einstein Bros. and Caribou Coffee are three widely-beloved brands with incredible growth potential,” said Cil. “I look forward to working closely with the board, Paul and his management team to build a high-performance culture at Panera with a guest-first mindset and to stay laser-focused on delivering great guest experiences while serving high-quality and innovative food at a good value.”
In addition to appointing Cil as chairman, Panera Brands has welcomed Neil Golden, Buck Jordan, Andre Molinari, James Pappas, Emiliano Román and José Tomás to the board.
- Neil Golden: Golden led a nearly 25-year career with McDonald’s and served as chief marketing officer for McDonald's USA from 2007 to 2014. Golden has served in various professional roles with consumer-facing brands ranging from C-suite business leader to educator to board member for multiple companies including RBI, Purple Strategies and Mark Anthony Brands.
- Buck Jordan: Jordan is the founder and CEO of Vebu Inc. – a product and technology company enabling the transformation of the food industry through automation, AI and robotics. He is also the co-founder of Miso Robotics, whose signature product is Flippy, an AI-powered robot that automates the fry station in commercial kitchens. As founder of venture firm Canyon Creek Capital, he has invested several hundred million dollars into early-stage technology companies and served on several company boards.
- Andre Molinari: Molinari is a seasoned entrepreneur and business development executive with knowledge of the restaurant and food industries, having spent more than eight years as the head of global development and mergers & acquisitions for RBI and head of international development for Tim Hortons.
- James Pappas: Pappas currently serves as chairman of the board at Innovative Food Holdings Inc. and as a board member at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. He previously served as a board member at Jamba, Inc., The Pantry Inc. and Morgan’s Foods Inc.
- Emiliano Román: Román brings more than 20 years of experience advising and investing across the food industry. He currently serves as a managing director and head of consumer and retail at Rockefeller Capital Management, where he leads strategic advisory and private investing activities across the consumer, retail, food and agriculture industries. Previously, Román served as a managing director at Morgan Stanley.
- José Tomás: Tomás is an experienced operations and human resources executive, specializing in building high-performance corporate cultures. He has held senior roles in several multi-national companies, including as president, Latin America and Caribbean region, and global chief people officer at Burger King Corporation.
Gerhard Pleuhs and David Deno will continue to serve on the Panera Brands board of directors.
Panera Brands operates more than 3,700 company and franchised locations in 11 countries across its brands.
