Former Applebee’s COO Joins Qdoba

Fast-casual Mexican restaurant brand Qdoba has appointed Kevin Carroll as COO.

Carroll will be responsible for all aspects of Qdoba’s operations strategy and execution across about 800 restaurants in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.

Qdoba says Carroll’s appointment comes on the heels of the brand posting a 7.7% increase in comp sales for its fiscal year ending September 2024, on top of last year’s 6.3% comp sales growth. With four consecutive years of growth, Qdoba says it plans to double the size of its current footprint to more than 1,600 restaurants over the next decade.

For the past seven years, Carroll served as COO for Applebee’s Grill & Bar. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of operations for Chili’s Grill & Bar/Brinker Int’l. Throughout his 27-year tenure with Chili’s, Carroll rose through the ranks of the organization from restaurant general manager to area director to regional director to regional vice president to senior vice president.