Brett Schulman

Brett Schulman is the co-founder and CEO of CAVA Group, the fastest-growing Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain in the United States. Schulman joined the founding team in 2011 when CAVA was a small group of full-service Mediterranean restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area, and pivoted the concept into a fast-casual format — customizable bowls and pitas with chef-driven Mediterranean flavors — that could scale nationally. Schulman's strategic acumen was demonstrated in CAVA's 2018 acquisition of Zoe's Kitchen, a struggling 260-unit Mediterranean chain, for $300 million. Rather than simply expanding the Zoe's concept, Schulman converted Zoe's locations into CAVA restaurants, instantly giving CAVA a national real estate footprint and conversion economics far superior to building new locations from scratch. This acquisition accelerated CAVA's growth by years. CAVA's June 2023 IPO was one of the most successful restaurant IPOs in recent memory, with shares surging 99% on the first day. Since then, the stock has continued to outperform as CAVA delivered same-restaurant sales growth exceeding 10% and opened new locations at an accelerating pace. Schulman's decisions on unit growth rate (targeting 15%+ annual new openings), menu innovation and limited-time offers, digital ordering penetration, labor management in a tight market, and geographic expansion beyond the East Coast are the primary drivers of CAVA's premium growth valuation.