Adam Rymer, the new CFO of fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle, has a career path that demonstrates how a combination of hard work, curiosity and great leadership — all in a fundamentally sound organization — can create opportunities of a lifetime.
Though Rymer’s transition pathway to CFO planned on him taking the role in 2025, former CEO Brian Niccol’s departure for the same role at Starbucks, which notably came shortly after Rymer’s predecessor Jack Hartung announced his succession plan for retirement, created an executive shuffle that postponed Hartung’s retirement and expedited Rymer’s CFO appointment to Oct. 1. Now, he is nearly 90 days into his new role.
Unlike many of his fellow CFO peers, Rymer holds no master’s degrees and has no experience in areas like consulting, Big Four accounting or any other finance-adjacent industries. Instead, he is mostly a homegrown talent. Rymer was hired in March 2009 at Chipotle in an entry-level position as a compensation analyst and was promoted seven times in almost 16 years.
Now, as only the second finance chief in the company’s more than 31-year history, he is preparing to continue the legacy of not only a CFO who has a reputation for top-notch financial prowess but an organization that has been able to grow substantially without debt and while maintaining standards of quality and affordability.
To do this, Rymer must hit the ground running. In 2025, the company is planning on opening hundreds of stores, so one of Rymer’s tasks is gauging and tweaking the finance function’s ability to take on more work.
Adam Rymer
CFO, Chipotle
First CFO position: 2024
Notable previous employers:
- Rock Bottom Restaurants
- Which Wich?
- Sabre Holdings
ADAM ZAKI: Your predecessor, Jack Hartung, did a phenomenal job financially structuring Chipotle to thrive and grow during the ebbs and flows of external economic conditions for over 20 years. Your entire career at Chipotle, nearly 16 years so far, was spent under his leadership. What did you learn most from him and what do you think he saw in you that allowed you to climb the ladder to CFO?
ADAM RYMER: I don’t think Chipotle would be where it is today without Jack. I love that he continues to get recognition outside the organization because he deserves every bit of it. There are so many things I learned from Jack over my career, but one thing that stands out is his unbelievable approach to the inclusivity of information in the business.
Throughout any decision-making process we’ve had in the finance team — from things like new restaurant initiatives, overcoming certain issues, investments in restaurant designs and limited-time offers — he was an open book about why decisions were being made. Early on, when I started as an analyst, which is an entry-level position here, he was always a completely open book to make sure we were all better informed when making decisions.
Also, from my first day here, he always expressed interest in not just my own but everyone’s opinions. I would report directly to him as an analyst, which was a great feeling early in my career. It’s carried over into how I lead my teams today.
I think the conversations Jack and I would have about the business, the investments we make and what drives consumer trends inspired us to think differently and made us better. Now that he’s stepped into a new role, I’ve had the chance to be promoted, I believe continuing to understand our industry from a variety of perspectives while being a strategic partner is one of the best things I can do to impact our business.
Outside of potential tariffs, what types of external economic factors are you paying the most attention to right now?
RYMER: Anything that impacts our consumers — inflation, food prices, grocery store prices, gas prices — anything that can take a potential chunk out of a consumer’s wallet. We are keeping an eye on tariffs, but it is unclear where things will go at this point. But we’re preparing by developing a really good understanding of our global supply chains, creating flexibility in our ability to diversify where we buy things, whether domestically or abroad.
“Early on, when I started as an analyst, which is an entry-level position here, [former CFO Jack Hartung] was always a completely open book to make sure we were all better informed when making decisions.”
Adam Rymer
CFO, Chipotle
We spend an amazing amount of money on our food. We use premium ingredients, so we are focusing on maintaining that quality while managing affordability. Our most popular menu items remain under $10 in most parts of the U.S., and we’ve focused on making sure we keep that price point as accessible as possible compared to our fast-casual competition.
You have a very passionate consumer base. On one hand, it shows that consumers are passionate about your product, which is good, but on the other, it puts your decisions under a microscope among both customers and investors. As this has increased, has the perception of decisions played at all into your decision-making processes?
RYMER: We definitely keep our fingers on the pulse of what the perception is of our company, and we do it in a lot of different ways. From a brand and marketing perspective, we do a lot to make sure we are delivering a message that we are using quality ingredients and offering them at a competitive price. We have a lot of passionate customers, but as you hinted, it comes in many forms.
There are a lot of conversations on social media and in the news that we try to lean into in marketing. We make sure we are really careful in choosing our brand ambassadors, who are usually individuals with notoriety and are actual fans of our food and regulars in our restaurants.
We don’t pay people to say they enjoy Chipotle. Our brand partnerships are made with those who love our food, and range from viral videos of children enjoying our food, partnerships with NBA players who are passionate about our product’s quality and social media influencers who lean into our quality and affordability in their content.
Can you share with me some wins on the technology front, both on the consumer side and within the finance function?
RYMER: On the consumer side, we realized early on that technology would be important to our consumers. We put that into action and rolled out a complete digital experience that we knew couldn’t be off the shelf. We focused on making it feel like you were ordering down the line in the restaurant, giving the same order capacity as a consumer would inside.
“I believe continuing to understand our industry from a variety of perspectives while being a strategic partner is one of the best things I can do to impact our business.”
Adam Rymer
CFO, Chipotle
We wanted to ensure there was no friction. We invested a lot of resources into that effort and made the processes around our customers’ digital experience equally efficient on our end and their end. These systems helped drive the business forward through the pandemic, making up almost 70% of our sales at some points.
Now that number has come down to somewhere in the mid-30% range at any given time, but it was amazing to see how an initiative we invested a lot of time and resources into passed a major test and helped the business during an unprecedented time.
Internally, we are a scrappy finance team — we always have been. We have plans to open hundreds of new restaurants in 2025, so we’ve made an effort to use technology to handle the growing amount of work. The number of invoices, things to process and profit-and-loss statements to generate all grow when we open new restaurants, so we’ve focused on efficiency to avoid adding headcount for every new location.
We’ve become much more efficient at processing invoices and logging data that the team can use to drive efficiencies. We’re interested in AI and are evaluating tools to improve accuracy, but our main focus is maintaining our efficiency as we expand globally.
Now that you’re settled in, what areas of the company would you say you are looking to collaborate most with in 2025?
RYMER: Early in my career here, I spent a lot of time in the field with our field finance team on the front line at our restaurants. Now we have dedicated analysts and managers within the corporate finance team, and I was in many of those roles early on. I was the financial analyst for the development team in areas like restaurant builds, maintenance, supply chain and marketing. These roles gave me — and gave those [employees] currently in them — an amazing understanding of the entire company.
For example, supply chain financial analysts attend weekly leadership meetings. This provides the perspective of an analyst in those meetings, updates certain things analysts pick up on and creates opportunities for collaboration. We focus on having the right people in these roles and supporting them to provide feedback that informs our decision-making processes.
I’m looking for the next layer of support out of this function to influence decision-making with the most data and insight possible. Personally, there’s no department or component of the business where we aren’t already engaging or building relationships that would warrant a stronger effort in the upcoming year.
