Panera Bread strengthens C-suite with Chief Information Officer appointment

A Panera Bread customer using Amazon One contactless payment technology | Photo credit: Panera Bread

Panera Bread has appointed former Dunkin’ executive Santhosh Kumar as Chief Information Officer, effective 12 February 2025. 
 

Reporting to Interim CEO Paul Carbone, Kumar will assume responsibility for the development, integration and deployment of technology across Panera Bread’s 2,200 cafés in the US and Canada. He brings key digital experience to role, including developing and launching Dunkin’s mobile app loyalty programme, DD Perks, in 2014. 

The coffee and food-to-go group has accelerated the use of digital technology across its in-store, drive-thru and delivery operations since the pandemic, adopting contactless dine-in, AI-powered drive-thru and Alexa voice ordering for pick-up and delivery. 

Kumar is expected to expand the scope of Panera Bread’s loyalty scheme, My Panera, which has more than 52 million members and uses Amazon One technology for loyalty personalisation and contactless payments. 
 

“Panera Bread has a strong history as a technology leader in the restaurant industry. I am proud to join an already outstanding team and to continue Panera’s relentless focus on creating the most seamless and efficient experience for our team members and guests,” he said. 

Panera Bread’s Senior Vice President of IT, Katie Canty, has served as Interim Chief Information Officer since John Meister retired from the role in January 2024. 

Kumar will join Panera Bread from US food wholesaler United Natural Food, Inc. (UNFI), where he led a multi-year warehouse transformation and cloud modernisation programmes which resulted in significant operational efficiencies and cost savings for the company. Prior to UNFI, Kumar spent over 20 years with Dunkin’, most recently as Senior Vice President, Global Information Technology 2020-2022.  

Founded in 1987, Panera Bread currently operates over 2,200 stores across the US and Canada. The coffee and food-to-go chain is part of US fast-casual group Panera Brands, which also manages the Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels chains. 
 

Kumar is Panera Bread’s fourth senior appointment of 2025 after the hires of Robin Seward as Senior Vice President, Brand and Integrated Marketing, Scott Uehlein as Vice President, Culinary, and Brian Krause as Chief Development Officera – all in January 2025. 

Interim CEO Carbone, who worked alongside Kumar at Dunkin’ 2008-2017, also assumed his position last month and will lead the coffee and food-to-go group while its Board of Directors searches for a new CEO, with both internal and external candidates under consideration.