McDonald's Ray Kroc. Starbucks' Howard Schultz. Ron Shaich.
The Mount Rushmore of visionary founders in the fast-food industry. People that have tapped into the world's fixation to get hot food fast and somewhat on the cheap.
Never heard of Shaich being mentioned in the same breath as those other two swashbucklers? You should be doing more homework, seeing as you have probably eaten at a Panera Bread, Au Bon Pain, or Cava in the past 10 years — all three chains founded (Panera Bread, Au Bon Pain) or invested in early (Cava) by Shaich.
Having known the "Godfather of Fast Casual" for about a decade, I have long thought the missing hubbub around his major achievements has caused him to offer a head shake or three in private.
Even Shaich acknowledged it to a degree in a new episode of Yahoo Finance's "Lead This Way."
"I absolutely do [see myself as a visionary]," Shaich tells me inside one of his newer creations in Boston, an artisanal pastry/ lunch/ coffee shop named Tatte Bakery & Cafe. "The thing I feel the best about is to really do what it takes in having the ability to determine today what's going to matter tomorrow."
To be sure, Shaich has run a master class on restaurant leadership for longer than most people have been alive.
Search for Shaich (pronounced "shake"), 69, and you will find a decorated entrepreneurial past in the restaurant industry.
In 1980, just a few years out of Harvard Business School, Shaich opened a cookie store in Boston dubbed the Cookie Jar. The 27-year-old soon began ordering baguettes and croissants for his store from a nearby Au Bon Pain.
The move came from Shaich's observation that many people weren't buying cookies before noon. Why not offer a complete menu, right?
Sensing an opportunity in the business of sandwiches, Shaich approached venture capitalist Louis Kane, who was running Au Bon Pain at the time.
The two entrepreneurs formed a partnership in 1981. They took Au Bon Pain public a decade later; by 1993, the company boasted sandwich-and-soup-serving restaurants across the country.
Au Bon Pain then purchased St. Louis Bread, a regional restaurant chain known for its fresh ingredients.
Shaich pressed Au Bon Pain leaders to shift more attention toward St. Louis Bread, and the pressure led to a board fight, which Shaich won. Au Bon Pain was then sold to a private equity firm in 1999.
Shaich took over as CEO of St. Louis Bread and changed its name to Panera, which is Latin for "bread basket" or "bread bowl.'
The rest is restaurant history.
Shaich led an aggressive rollout of Panera Bread locations in the US, cooking up everything from soup to bread loaves to salads.
In 2010, Shaich stepped aside as CEO but retained the role of executive chairman so he could pursue philanthropic interests.
But Shaich returned to Panera as chairman and CEO in 2013.
From 2013 to the time of its sale to JAB Holdings in 2017 for $7.5 billion, Shaich was at the leading edge of digital ordering and fast-casual restaurant rewards programs. In his second stint as Panera CEO, he also launched a clean ingredients menu list — which has since become standard operating procedure for many fast-casual chains.
Not known as one to take it easy (based on my experience reporting on Shaich), the restless entrepreneur launched an investment fund dubbed Act III Holdings soon after Panera's sale, with an initial capital of $300 million. Shaich also found more time to rail against the activist investor industry (Panera fought off activists twice).
In 2018, Shaich announced a significant investment in Cava to finance its acquisition of Zoe's Kitchen.
Cava debuted successfully on the public markets in 2023, with Shaich as its chairman. He also became a successful author last year with "Know What Matters," which chronicles his journey through the restaurant industry's ups and downs.
And today, Act III Holdings has an investment portfolio that also includes restaurants Tatte Bakery & Cafe, Life Alive, and BJ's Restaurants.
Shaich's advice to future leaders? Realize that success comes with a price.
"There is no such thing as balance in life. There is only tradeoffs. And so one goes into it prepared to make tradeoffs there," Shaich said. "My kids knew when I was a CEO that this was so important to me, it was a third child. My life has been essentially about the organizations that I've led."
Lots of leaders can probably relate over a Panera soup and sandwich in an airport, Ron.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on Twitter/X @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Tips on deals, mergers, activist situations, or anything else? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
