Restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) has named company veteran Scott Boatwright as its new permanent chief executive officer (CEO).
Boatwright has worked at Chipotle since 2017. He had been serving as interim CEO after the company’s former top executive, Brian Niccol, left to take the helm of Starbucks (SBUX).
Boatwright takes over as CEO of Chipotle as the company struggles with weak consumer demand and a social media backlash following increases to its menu prices.
Despite these challenges, Boatwright has declared that he wants double Chipotle’s restaurant locations in North America to 7,000.
Boatwright is a veteran of the restaurant industry, having spent 18 years with Arby’s Restaurant Group before joining Chipotle.
He was named permanent CEO following “a thorough and rigorous external search process,” by Chipotle’s board of directors, said the company in a news release.
Boatwright’s appointment as CEO follows several other recent executive changes at Chipotle after Niccol’s departure.
In August, Chipotle named Adam Rymer as its chief financial officer (CFO) and named Rymer’s predecessor Jack Hartung as chief strategy officer.
Chipotle’s stock is up 32% so far this year and trading at $59.27 U.S. The shares underwent a 50-for-1 split in June.