PhotoChipotle Mexican Grill said on Wednesday that it was looking for a new leader “with demonstrated turnaround expertise” to replace Steve Ells, the current chief executive and founder of the fast casual chain. Mr. Ells, who started the company in Denver in 1993 and now oversees more than 2,350 restaurants, will become executive chairman once his successor is found. “While we are continuing to make progress, it is clear that we need to move faster to make improvements,” Mr. Ells said in a statement. Around the same time, Chipotle began dealing with the first in a long series of scandals. The company was subpoenaed in a criminal inquiry related to a norovirus outbreak in California in 2015, and then again after another norovirus outbreak in Virginia this summer.

Source: New York Times November 29, 2017 17:13 UTC