Sweetgreen Names Jason Cochran as COO

Sweetgreen has hired Jason Cochran as COO, effective Monday, May 5.

Cochran will oversee field operations as well as operations services and innovation. He’ll report to Sweetgreen’s co-founder and CEO Jonathan Neman.

“Jason is a trusted and visionary leader with hands-on operational experience at growth oriented brands,” says Neman in the release. “His strategic mindset, operational discipline, and ability to inspire teams make him uniquely positioned to help lead Sweetgreen into its next chapter of growth. Jason’s alignment with our mission and cultural fit is clear, and I’m incredibly excited to welcome him to the team as we continue scaling our impact across more communities.”

Cochran brings more than two decades of executive leadership experience in restaurant and consumer retail. Prior to joining Sweetgreen, he served as CEO and a board member of American West Restaurant Group, one of the largest Pizza Hut franchisees in the U.S.

His career also includes serving as vice president of operations services at Chipotle Mexican Grill and as senior vice president of U.S. stores at GameStop.

Since opening in 2007, Sweetgreen has scaled to over 250 locations across the U.S. North Carolina and Ohio are a few states it debuted in last year.