Sweetgreen has named Lauren Crowley its chief people officer, effective Oct. 26, filling the seat held by Adrienne Gemperle, who will work alongside Crowley through the end of the year before transitioning out of the role.

Crowley arrives with two decades of HR experience, most recently as senior vice president of human resources at OC Sports & Entertainment. Before that, she spent seven years at Expedia Group supporting 16,500 employees across 56 countries. Her biggest credential for a chain of Sweetgreen's scale: at Starbucks, she led U.S. retail HR operations covering more than 200,000 partners across more than 15,000 locations.

CEO and Co-founder Jonathan Neman framed the hire as a fit for the company's current stage. "Lauren brings the exact blend of strategic vision, operational rigor and people-first leadership that Sweetgreen needs at this stage of our journey," he said in a statement. "She has a deep understanding of how to build strong cultures and people organizations at scale, and I'm thrilled to welcome her to the team. I know she will be an incredible partner to our leaders and our restaurant teams as we continue to evolve and grow."

Why the role matters now

The people chief isn't a routine backfill here. Sweetgreen, based in Los Angeles, has been rebuilding nearly its entire executive team while it works to reverse declining sales — a pattern mirrored across the chain restaurant industry, where Top 500 sales slowed again in 2025 as consumers pulled back on dining.

The reshuffle runs deep. Since last year, the company has installed:

• Jamie McConnell as chief financial officer
• Zipporah Allen as chief commercial officer
• Jason Cochran as chief operating officer
• Ryan Slemons as chief development officer (April)
• Cindy Olsen as senior vice president and chief strategy officer, a newly created role (May)
• Nathaniel Ru, co-founder, retired as chief brand officer at the end of last year, though he remains on the board

What does this change for restaurant teams?

In practice, a CPO hire at this stage is about execution at the store level. Sweetgreen is trying to grow while sales decline, which puts pressure on staffing, training and retention — the levers a chief people officer controls. Crowley's Starbucks background, running HR for a workforce roughly 40 times the size of Sweetgreen's, suggests the company is prioritizing systems that scale over boutique culture programs.

The transition plan also signals continuity rather than a clean break. Gemperle staying on through December gives Crowley two-plus months of overlap, an unusually long handoff that typically means significant institutional knowledge is moving between the two.

For Sweetgreen's leadership bench, the message is simpler: nearly every seat at the executive table has turned over within 18 months. Crowley is the latest piece, not the last word — and whether that rebuilt team stabilizes sales will define the next chapter for the chain.