Ron Shaich

Ronald M. Shaich (born December 30, 1953) is an American businessman, entrepreneur, investor, and best-selling author who co-founded and built Au Bon Pain Inc., and later, founded Panera Bread, both of which he served as CEO and chairman. Under Shaich's leadership, from 1997 to 2017, Panera Bread was the best-performing public restaurant stock, performing two times better than Starbucks, six times better than Chipotle, and performing 44 times better than the S&P 500 with 25% annualized returns. Shaich sold Panera Bread for $7.5 billion in 2017.

Shaich is credited with helping create the fast-casual segment. As of 2024, the fast-casual segment of the restaurant industry is generating well in excess of $300 billion in sales.

He currently serves as CEO and Managing Partner of Act III Holdings, a $1 billion+ evergreen investment firm that he founded in 2018 with approximately $250 million of his and his partners money. Shaich is the current chairman and lead investor in Act III's portfolio companies – Cava, Tatte Bakery & Café, Life Alive, and Level99.

During his career, Shaich was a public company CEO for 27 years, and was involved in taking three different restaurant brands public—Au Bon Pain, Panera, and Cava.

On October 24, 2023, Shaich released his first book, Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations, in which he “provides a roadmap for individuals and organizations to find purpose, make meaningful contributions, and prioritize what truly matters.” It is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Porchlight best seller.

Early life and education
Ronald M. Shaich was born on December 30, 1953, to Joseph and Pearl Shaich (née Kalfus) in Newark, New Jersey, to a Jewish family. Joe Shaich was a certified public accountant and Pearl was a homemaker. Shaich has one sister.

Raised in Livingston, New Jersey, Shaich graduated from Livingston High School in 1971. Shaich attended Clark University, graduating with a B.A. in government and politics in 1976. Shaich later graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1978. He was awarded Clark University's highest honor, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, on May 18, 2014, when he delivered the 110th Commencement Address.

Early career
Shaich began his first business on Clark University's campus, running a convenience store for students. While earning an MBA from Harvard University in 1978, he worked as an assistant to the president of Store 24, Inc. and then as an assistant to the vice president of marketing at CVS Stores. After business school, Shaich served as the Eastern Regional Manager for the Original Cookie Company, helped form the political consulting firm Targeting Systems and launched the Cookie Jar bakery in Boston in 1980. Shortly thereafter, Shaich added fresh croissants and baguettes to the Cookie Jar menu to attract the lunch crowd. The breads and croissants came from Au Bon Pain.

Au Bon Pain
In 1981, Shaich merged his Cookie Jar with three Au Bon Pain bakeries, which were led by Louis I. Kane, a Boston-area venture capitalist, and together they created Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. Shaich then led Au Bon Pain's conversion from bakeries to bakery cafés and the business took off.

Au Bon Pain grew rapidly as Shaich and Kane took it public in 1991 and by 1993, the company had grown to 250 stores, primarily in high density urban markets in the Northeast.

Later in 1993, Shaich led an acquisition in which Au Bon Pain acquired the St. Louis Bread Company, a chain of 20 bakery cafes located in St. Louis for $24 million. Shaich used St. Louis Bread Co. to develop the Panera Bread concept. All subsequent bakery cafes outside of the St. Louis market opened were called Panera Bread while those in St. Louis retained the St. Louis Bread Company moniker.

In 1997, Shaich realized he couldn't access sufficient financial and human capital to revitalize Au Bon Pain and simultaneously grow his new concept, Panera Bread, so "he bet the house on Panera." By May 1999, Au Boin Pain Manufacturing was sold to Bunge Foods, and Au Bon Pain USA and Au Bon Pain International were sold to private-equity firm Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. After the sale, the sole remaining division of Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. was the Panera division and the public company name was changed from Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. to Panera Bread with the public stock symbol becoming PNRA.

Panera Bread
In 1999, in addition to the 20 St. Louis Bread Company stores, Shaich's Panera Bread had more than 150 cafes.

By 2000, Panera Bread, under Shaich's leadership, had 227 stores open across 27 states and $202 million in sales. Its stock went from $6 per share in 1999 to $19 per share in 2000 about a year later. It posted profits of $21.8 million in 2002.

As consumers sought healthier options, Shaich evolved Panera's menu to include antibiotic-free and trans fat-free ingredients, as well as whole-grain breads with fewer grams of carbohydrates per slice. Panera was also the first national restaurant chain to post full calorie information for consumers.

In early 2004, the stock was trading at $40 per share.

By 2005, Shaich grew total sales of Panera Bread to $2 billion with profits of $81.1 million and a stock price of $73.56.

In November 2009, Shaich announced that he would step down as CEO of Panera Bread in 2010 as he hoped to take what he learned at Panera and make contributions to civic society while retaining his role as the company's Executive Chairman. Bill Moreton, who had been serving as Chief Operating Officer, would take over as CEO.

The day after Shaich stepped down as CEO of Panera, he opened the first of five Panera Cares community cafes, which were operated as "pay it forward" cafes without set prices. Shaich's goal was to substantially contribute to the community at the height of the recession by supporting those who were struggling with food insecurity and financial hardships.

In November 2010, Ron wrote a memo on how he would compete with Panera if he weren't invested in Panera. Upon reading the memo, Bill Moreton asked Ron to work on bringing the initiatives described in the thought piece to life, and Ron returned in 2011 to drive Panera's next wave of transformation. He became Co-CEO with Bill Moreton in March 2012 and officially reclaimed the role as sole CEO at Panera in August 2013. Bill Moreton stayed with the company as Executive Vice Chairman.

In 2014, Shaich pioneered the integration of technology at restaurants by unveiling Panera 2.0, "a series of integrated technologies to enhance the guest experience for all consumers no matter how they choose to use Panera." The plan included the following key elements:


 * 1) A better way to order, pick up and pay: Ordering ahead, ordering from your table, ordering kiosks, customized ordering, as well as online payment processing. Delivery to the table for customers ordering inside, as well as an area for rapid pick-up to-go orders was also added. An enhanced customer experience, including a customer-facing display to verify the correct order.
 * 2) Improved production and accuracy systems.

As part of this transformation, Shaich also spearheaded:


 * 1) A revised concept essence (go-to-market strategy): Redefining the customer experience to focus on craveable wellness and more clean options for customers.
 * 2) The launch of a loyalty program: Among the first in the restaurant industry.
 * 3) The development of omnichannel growth levers: Catering, delivery, and consumer packaged goods businesses.

By June 2017, Shaich's transformed Panera delivered annualized digital sales of over $1 billion and sales from mobile, web and kiosk orders made up 26% of the company's total sales. Panera estimated that 1.2 million digital orders were placed per week.

Shaich led the sale of Panera to JAB Holdings for approximately $7.5 billion ($315 per share) in a deal approved by Panera's shareholders on July 11, 2017. The deal was the largest U.S. restaurant deal ever done up until that point in time at among the highest multiples – 18x EBITDA – on record. Once the acquisition was final, JAB Holdings took the company private.

In November 2017, Shaich led Panera's acquisition of Au Bon Pain. That same day, Shaich announced that he was stepping down as CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2018. Olivier Goudet took over as chairman in 2018.

Act III Holdings
In 2018, Shaich founded Act III Holdings LLC, an evergreen investment vehicle, with $250 million of his and his partners money. As of 2023, Act III has a portfolio valued in excess of $1 billion and invests in consumer-facing restaurant and entertainment concepts that can dominate a niche in the marketplace. Shaich serves as Act III's Managing Partner & CEO.

Shaich's first major investment with Act III was as a lead investor in Cava. Shaich believed in people's desire for Mediterranean fast-casual cuisine and the potential of the Cava brand. Shaich conceptualized and led Cava's acquisition of public company Zoe's Kitchen, which was five times larger than Cava and allowed Cava to hyper scale into a category-dominant brand company with 250 locations as of October 2023.

As part of the acquisition, Shaich became chair of the combined company and Act III is among Cava's lead investors with 10% of the equity.

As chairman, Shaich assisted with Cava Group's initial public offering (IPO) in June 2023.

Other notable investments from Shaich's Act III portfolio include Tatte Bakery & Café, Life Alive—a place to eat positive, and Level99—live-action, challenge-based entertainment, craft beverages and farm-to-table dining.

Author
Shaich has written one book, Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations, released October 2023. The book was positively received, becoming a USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Porchlight best seller.

Forbes says the book "provides a roadmap for individuals and organizations to find purpose, make meaningful contributions, and prioritize what truly matters." McKinsey & Company similarly said, "Drawing on more than three decades of innovation and transformation, Shaich offers a detailed playbook for how to create and sustain a successful enterprise."

Forbes calls out that "Shaich follows many of the fundamental guiding principles of billion-dollar entrepreneurs. Learn these common rules and apply them to your business to build your lean unicorn."

Fast Company commended Know What Matters, saying it "offers insights into how to build long-term thinking and lead an “integrated" life." CNBC praised the book saying, "Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich uses his new book, "Know What Matters," to impart lessons learned from his decades in the restaurant business — and reveals some juicy details in the process."

Eric Jacobson wrote on his Management and Leadership blog, "Shaich offers clear-headed lessons for the entire life cycle of an enterprise, from bootstrapping a startup to going public to managing large companies to selling a business. He challenges readers to grapple with how business impacts life, sharing his own struggles and setbacks with as much honesty and candor as he describes his successes."

The book garnered 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon and Goodreads.

Book

 * Shaich, Ron (2023), Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations, Harvard Business Review Press, ISBN 978-1647825591