{"id":75060,"date":"2025-12-03T23:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/75060\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T23:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:44:10","slug":"velvet-taco-names-former-voodoo-doughnut-ceo-as-its-new-chief-executive-dallas-innovates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/75060\/","title":{"rendered":"Velvet Taco Names Former Voodoo Doughnut CEO as Its New Chief Executive \u00bb Dallas Innovates"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Velvet Taco names Chris Schultz as CEO [Photo: Velvet Taco]<\/p>\n

Dallas-based Velvet Taco, the fast-casual restaurant known for its \u201ccreative and unapologetically original\u201d approach to fusing global flavors in tacos, has named Chris Schultz as CEO to lead the brand\u2019s next phase of growth in the U.S. and internationally.<\/p>\n

Schultz will focus on operations, innovation, and elevating the overall guest experience, Velvet Taco said.<\/p>\n

\u201cVelvet Taco is one of those rare brands that knows exactly who it is: bold, creative and unapologetically original,\u201d Schultz said in a statement. \u201cMy focus is on fueling that spirit as we grow, staying true to what made Velvet Taco special while building the kind of brand and culture that can thrive anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a resum\u00e9 that includes fast-growing and iconic brands selling doughnuts, pizza, and coffee, Schultz brings more than 30 years of restaurant leadership experience.<\/p>\n

Most recently, he served as CEO of Portland, Oregon-based Voodoo Doughnut, where he guided the brand\u2019s expansion into new markets while keeping its distinctive culture intact.<\/p>\n

Previously, he spent nine years as SVP of operations at MOD Pizza, helping grow the company from a single location to more than 350 across the country.<\/p>\n

Earlier in his career, Schultz spent 13 years with Starbucks, where he helped drive development and operational excellence during a period of rapid global growth.<\/p>\n

Per LinkedIn, former CEO Clay Dover said he left Velvet Taco a few months ago to pursue another opportunity.<\/p>\n

Founded in Dallas in 2011, Velvet Taco now operates more than 50 restaurants in eight states and recently celebrated its first international opening in London. The menu features more than 20 globally inspired tacos and the brand\u2019s popular Weekly Taco Feature (WTF) program, which introduces a new, limited-time taco every week of the year.<\/p>\n

Under Schultz\u2019s leadership, Velvet Taco said that it plans to continue its expansion into key metropolitan areas while exploring non-traditional venues such as airports and that it remains committed to \u201cculinary creativity, late-night hospitality and delivering an unforgettable taco experience to its growing community of fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss what\u2019s next. Subscribe\u00a0to\u00a0Dallas\u00a0Innovates.<\/p>\n

Track Dallas-Fort Worth\u2019s business and innovation landscape with our curated news in your inbox Tuesday-Thursday.<\/p>\n

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\tR E A D\u00a0\u00a0 N E X T\t<\/p>\n

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Led by a James Beard Award\u2013winning chef, the 20-course experience will unfold inside a 9,500-square-foot warehouse, with projection-mapped dining rooms and just 26 seats per seating. It\u2019s all part of what the founders call a love letter to Dallas.<\/p>\n

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CRAFT’s first U.S. location\u2014featuring more than 100 beers on tap “including local Texas brews”\u2014is coming to Dallas’ Preston Center.\u00a0In 2019, its founder, PJ L\u2019Heureux, partnered with\u00a0Tom Gaglardi, owner of the\u00a0Dallas Stars\u00a0and the\u00a0Moxies Restaurants, setting the stage for expansion into the U.S. market.<\/p>\n

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Michael Turner joins the aerospace-focused firm after the company successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. The restructuring significantly reduced the company\u2019s debt, brought in new institutional ownership, and led to a restructured board of directors\u2014now chaired by former Home Depot and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli.<\/p>\n

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Gabrielle Gorham Hill will oversee Turvo’s Customer Success, Professional Services, and Support organizations and will take a lead role in strengthening customer engagement, enhancing implementation excellence, maximizing service delivery processes, and ensuring every Turvo customer realizes maximum value, the company said.<\/p>\n

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John Dillon will be responsible for creating a dynamic strategy to drive sales, increase the number of franchise partners, expand the brand’s market presence, and further enhance plans around store-level profitability, operational efficiency, restaurant design, guest experience, marketing, and menu innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Velvet Taco names Chris Schultz as CEO [Photo: Velvet Taco] Dallas-based Velvet Taco, the fast-casual restaurant known for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[37186,37187,102,104,103,37188,37189,37190,10945,37191,37192],"class_list":["post-75060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-chris-schultz","tag-clay-dover","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-dallas-restaurant-chain","tag-mod-pizza","tag-restaurant-chain","tag-starbucks","tag-velvet-taco","tag-voodoo-doughnut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}