This week, I speak with Ron Shaich, co-founder of Au Bon Pain and founder and former chairman and CEO of Panera Bread. A key part of building that brand, today Shaich is a lead investor in Cava, Tatte, Life Alive and Level99, continuing a long and extensive career in the restaurant and fast casual business. He’s credited with defining the fast causal segment.
Under Shaich’s leadership, Panera was the single best performing restaurant stock over his last decade as CEO, and the second best performing consumer stock over the same period. In 2017, Shaich sold Panera Bread to JAB Holdings for $7.5 billion.
Today, he makes his investments through Act III Holdings, a more than $1 billion evergreen investment vehicle. Shaich has twice been recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, selected as the 2018 Restaurant Leader of the Year and was presented the prestigious Nation’s Restaurant News Pioneer Award as one of the most significant contributors in the history of the restaurant business.
A list of his current reading is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here Tuesday.
You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here.
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Bryon Lake, Chief Transformation Officer for the Client Solutions Group
of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Favorite Books
