Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.
Leadership History
3 leaders · 1993 to present
Scott Boatwright is the CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, in the role since 2024. The first chief executive was Steve Ells, from 1993.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott Boatwright | Chief Executive Officer | 2024 | Present | 2 |
| Brian Niccol | Chief Executive Officer | 2018 | 2024 | 6 |
| Steve Ells | Founder and Chief Executive Officer | 1993 | 2018 | 25 |
Chipotle helped define the fast-casual category: food cooked from raw ingredients and assembled in front of the guest, at a price above fast food and a speed faster than table service. Founded in Denver in 1993 and headquartered in Newport Beach, California since 2018, the company had 4,056 restaurants in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany and the Middle East at the end of 2025. Its 'Food with Integrity' sourcing standards, Chipotle Rewards loyalty program and Chipotlane drive-thru pickup lanes are the main pieces of its brand and operating model. The massive fast-casual pioneer was founded in Denver, Colorado in 1993, famously taking a massive early investment from McDonald's before violently breaking away to completely revolutionize the "food with integrity" movement.
Chipotle runs a company-operated model: it does not franchise in North America or Europe, so it books the full sales of each restaurant rather than royalties, and it carries the labor, food and occupancy costs itself. In 2025 food, beverage and packaging costs were 29.6% of revenue and labor was 25.1%, leaving a restaurant-level operating margin of 25.4%. A short menu built from a few dozen ingredients keeps the make-line fast, and a second digital make-line in most restaurants fulfills app, web and delivery orders, which were 36.7% of food and beverage revenue in 2025. Outside its core markets, Chipotle expands through partner-operated restaurants, such as its Middle East partnership with Alshaya Group, which numbered 14 at the end of 2025.
Chief Executive Officer
2024 – Present
2 years (current)
Became interim CEO in August 2024 and permanent CEO in November 2024 after serving as Chief Operating Officer and, earlier, Chief Restaurant Officer since joining in 2017. Launched the 'Recipe for Growth' strategy in 2026.
Chief Executive Officer
2018 – 2024
6 years
Niccol aggressively pioneered the 'Chipotlane' (mobile-order drive-thrus), radically increasing store margins and completely saving the company's revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brought in as CEO in 2018 to save the company following a massive E. coli crisis, he engineered one of the greatest turnarounds in restaurant history before abruptly leaving for Starbucks in 2024.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
1993 – 2018
25 years
Ells famously sold a massive stake in Chipotle to McDonald's in 1998, using their capital and logistics network to expand from 16 stores to over 500 before McDonald's divested in 2006.
As the Founder and long-time CEO, he pioneered the entire 'fast-casual' restaurant category, proving consumers would pay premium prices for ethically sourced, freshly prepared food in a fast-food format.
The first challenge is traffic. Transactions fell 2.9% in 2025 and comparable sales declined 1.7%, as lower-income and younger diners cut back. The second is cost: beef, chicken and freight inflation, 2025 tariffs and wage increases pushed food and labor costs up, and restaurant-level margin fell from 26.7% in 2024 to 25.4% in 2025, then to 25.2% in Q2 2026. The third is execution at scale, including portion consistency complaints that spread on social media in 2024 and the food-safety controls needed to avoid a repeat of the 2015 outbreaks.
Scott Boatwright was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Chipotle Mexican Grill in 2024, having previously served as Interim CEO and Chief Restaurant Officer since 2017.
Before joining Chipotle in 2017, Scott Boatwright spent nearly two decades at Arby's Restaurant Group, rising to Senior Vice President of Operations where he directed field operations, training, and operational excellence for thousands of restaurants.
Brian Niccol served as CEO of Chipotle from 2018 to 2024. Niccol orchestrated a complete corporate turnaround: moving headquarters to Newport Beach, launching the Chipotle Rewards program, inventing Chipotlanes, expanding digital sales to 35%+ of mix, and creating over $60 billion in shareholder value.
Steve Ells founded Chipotle in 1993 and served as CEO for 24 years until 2017. A Culinary Institute of America graduate, Ells invented the fast-casual burrito concept and established Chipotle's core 'Food with Integrity' philosophy before stepping down as Chairman in 2020.
As Chief Restaurant Officer, Scott Boatwright restructured Chipotle's restaurant leadership hierarchy, improved line throughput, oversaw the rollout of digital makelines and Chipotlanes across 3,500+ stores, and drove crew retention to historic highs.
In August 2024, Brian Niccol was recruited to become Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of global coffee giant Starbucks Corporation, leading Chipotle's board to appoint Scott Boatwright to ensure operational continuity.
Scott Boatwright is prioritizing expanding the North American store footprint to 7,000 locations, driving restaurant throughput, integrating kitchen automation technology (Autocado), and scaling international European and Middle Eastern development.
Chipotle maintains an independent Chairman of the Board of Directors alongside CEO Scott Boatwright, ensuring rigorous oversight of food safety compliance, executive compensation, enterprise risk, and corporate sustainability.
Brian Niccol, the former CEO of Taco Bell, was brought in as CEO in 2018 to save the company after the food safety crisis. He aggressively modernized the brand by heavily pushing digital orders and drive-thru "Chipotlanes."
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