QSR June 2022

YOUNG LEADERS

Candice Beck Director of Social and Influencer CHIPOTLE AGE: 32 Candice Beck, Chipotle’s director of social and influencer, describes her group as a team of “culture hunters.” In August 2020, the company became the first restau rant to surpass a million followers on TikTok. Chipotle says it

throughout the U.S. Our version of the all-day Italian café marries quality food, value priced, excel lent service, and retail grocery [food and alcohol] brings together the best of Europe for an American audience.” Iapicca has worked in quick service since he was 17, starting as a high school junior helming the register of a pizza chain. ANDREW Verhagen SENIOR FRANCHISE MANAGER BLAZE PIZZA AGE: 32 and honed his franchising knowl edge with Bojangles. Over the past year, Verhagen led a variety of stra tegic initiatives to support Blaze’s franchise efforts, which resulted in more than a dozen commitments for new store developments. Addi tionally, he assumed a lead role in the sourcing, analysis, and launch of Blaze’s new website and digital strategy. “Having experienced the franchise world from both the franchisee perspective and now the franchisor, I’m encouraged by and delighted to be among the new generation of executives leading these great brands,” Ver hagen says. “While the pandemic certainly had its challenges, it’s clear that consumers are now more than ever demanding both exceptional products and service from brands they know and love.” “Specifically, for development, this is an exciting time to be part nering with existing franchisees to grow their business as well as cultivating new franchisees with fresh perspectives in new markets,” he adds. “There also happens to be a paradigm shift in the day-to-day of franchising utilizing a more data heavy and analytical approach to achieve goals. The era of a handshake over a highball is transforming into software with seltzers, some Andrew Verhagen arrived at Blaze in 2021 as franchise manager. He grew up in the industry around his fami ly’s pizza concept

thing our younger generation has naturally been able to employ to enhance the strategic efforts of leadership.” ROSS Groeneweg CHIEF PEOPLE & STRATEGY OFFICER PIZZA RANCH AGE: 28

was also the first fast casual to partner with the social media plat form for the lid flip hashtag challenge, resulting in more than 100 million video starts. “We aim to meet our fans where they are and deliver authentic content endemic to each platform that super charges our super fans,” Beck says. “We saw incredible poten tial with being an early mover on TikTok and tapping into the Gen Z

Ross Groeneweg will always remem ber March 16, 2020, as the last day Pizza Ranch served its buffet before COVID 19 shutdowns

began. It was also his 26 th birthday. Groeneweg quickly met with employees one-on-one to update them and also ask how many hours they would need to get by amid the shutdowns. A general manager at the time, his people first approach to the crisis proved a winning strategy. In 2020, his restaurant posted the top sales increase, and he was awarded PDQDJHU RI WKH \HDU b This past January, Groeneweg was promoted to chief people and strategy officer after start ing at the brand as a dishwasher and dough roller nearly a decade earlier. It was also a meaning ful accomplishment, given that his father, Adrie Groeneweg, is the company founder and president. “I appreciate that my father never pushed me to choose Pizza Ranch for a career. He allowed me to choose, even directly chal lenging me when I said I wanted to work in Pizza Ranch,” he says. COURTNEY Maxedon VICE PRESIDENT OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING KAHALA BRANDS AGE: 33

audience. We were patient as we waited to strike when we had a unique insight and the right opportunity to show up on the platform in an engaging way.” As one of the first restaurants on the platform, Beck helped Chipotle listen, experiment, learn, and build relationships with creators and discover influential fans. This momentum led to the Chipotle Creator Class, a group comprising mostly Gen Z influencers that create Chipotle content and meet up to three times per year for virtual brain storming sessions. “We work exclusively with authentic Chipotle fans, and we recognized there was an opportunity to partner with creators in a bigger, more impactful way,” Beck says. “We designed Creator Class to build long-term relationships with creators who were already talking about Chipotle, recognize their gen uine fandom, support their unique and individual goals, and give them first opportunities for campaigns.” For Beck, the key to building engagement is finding a uniquely Chipotle angle that resonates with fans and builds community. In 2021, she oversaw Chipotle’s “Burritos Or Bit coin” campaign, which involved contestants having 10 tries to guess a six-digit code to win a free burrito or up to $25,000 in Bitcoin. Four million unique users joined the contest, with an average duration of 815 gameplays per second. Then as part of its 21st annual Boorito Halloween event, Chipotle officially entered the metaverse with a virtual res taurant on Roblox, an online gaming platform. The activation shattered records, with more than 1,600 mentions and 4.5 bil lion earned impressions, resulting in the highest digital sales day in history on Halloween. “We are always looking for opportunities to bring value to new communities and tap culture,” Beck says.

Prior to join ing Kahala Brands, Courtney Maxedon was well-entrenched in the toy and comic book world. But for as different as the

BLAZE PIZZA, PIZZA RANCH, COURTNEY MAXEDON: HAYLEY STALL PHOTOGRAPHY

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JUNE 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com