Panera Bread named Chris Finazzo as chief operating officer and Victor Siqueira as chief supply chain officer, effective Oct. 2, the Boston-based fast-casual chain said.

The dual hire places a Restaurant Brands International veteran inside Panera's C-suite at a moment when the brand is pushing a turnaround program called Panera RISE under CEO Paul Carbone, who took the top job in 2024.

Who is the new COO?

Finazzo arrives with more than 20 years of restaurant, consumer and retail leadership, including seven years in senior roles at Restaurant Brands International. His most prominent RBI post was president of the Americas at Burger King, where he ran marketing, operations, franchising, field operations and development for nearly 10,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada and Latin America.

He also served on the board of Carrols Restaurant Group, RBI's largest Burger King franchisee at the time, and as a director of the Burger King Foundation. Most recently, Finazzo served as chief commercial officer of United Parks & Resorts, where he led revenue and marketing.

What is Siqueira's mandate?

As chief supply chain officer, Siqueira will oversee sourcing, procurement, manufacturing and distribution across the Panera system. He arrives from Oakberry, where he led supply chain and consumer packaged goods for the Brazilian acai chain.

His prior stops include:

• Vice president of supply chain at Tim Hortons
• Senior leadership roles at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
• Senior leadership roles at Burger King

Panera said Siqueira brings experience running vertically integrated supply chain organizations for restaurant and consumer brands.

What does the Panera RISE program target?

The hires follow the rollout of Panera RISE, a multi-year operational overhaul Carbone launched to lift throughput, sharpen the digital experience and stabilize restaurant-level margins under sustained food and labor inflation.

Panera's system runs a roughly 50/50 split between company-operated and franchised cafes, a structure that magnifies the importance of supply chain and field operations leadership. Beef, dairy and bakery commodity swings flow directly into cost of goods sold, while scheduling and throughput drive labor as a percent of sales — two lines that have compressed operator margins across fast casual since 2022.

What did Panera's CEO say?

"I am pleased to welcome Chris and Victor to the Panera Bread leadership team," Carbone said. "They each bring proven leadership experience in the restaurant industry and strong track records of driving results at scale. Chris' operational, commercial, brand and franchise experience, combined with Victor's extensive supply chain expertise, will be invaluable as we continue to advance Panera RISE, elevate the guest experience, and position Panera for long-term growth."

The Panera Bread system spans roughly 2,100 U.S. cafes under parent Panera Brands, the JAB Holding-owned company that also operates Einstein Bros. Bagels and Caribou Coffee.

Finazzo succeeds interim operations leadership put in place after the prior COO departed, while Siqueira's role signals Panera's intent to tighten vendor terms, reformulate procurement contracts and reduce distribution overhead — moves that could compress food and packaging costs by 50 to 150 basis points if executed cleanly across both company-operated and franchise locations.

Expect the new COO to be measured first on same-store sales and throughput metrics inside company-operated cafes, with franchisee-level execution data likely to surface in Panera's next system-wide brand conference.