Sweetgreen has appointed Lauren Crowley as chief people officer, bringing an executive with experience in large-scale workforce management to the fast-casual chain as it continues to reshape its leadership team.
Crowley will take up the role on October 26, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. She succeeds Adrienne Gemperle, who will transition out of the position while working alongside Crowley through the end of the year to support the handover.
Crowley most recently served as senior vice president of human resources at OC Sports & Entertainment. Before that, she spent seven years at Expedia Group, where she supported a workforce of 16,500 employees across 56 countries. At Starbucks, she led U.S. retail human resources operations supporting more than 200,000 employees across more than 15,000 locations.
Sweetgreen co-founder and CEO Jonathan Neman said Crowley brings strategic vision, operational rigour and people-focused leadership, adding that her experience building people organisations at scale would support the company’s restaurant teams and leadership.
The appointment is the latest in a series of senior leadership changes at Sweetgreen, the Los Angeles-based fast-casual chain that has been working to address declining sales and improve its business performance.
The company named Cindy Olsen senior vice president and chief strategy officer in May, creating a new role, and appointed Ryan Slemons chief development officer in April. Other recent additions include CFO Jamie McConnell, chief commercial officer Zipporah Allen and COO Jason Cochran. Co-founder Nathaniel Ru also stepped away from his chief brand officer position at the end of 2025, while remaining on the board.
Crowley’s experience at Starbucks is particularly relevant to the scale of the challenge: managing people operations across thousands of locations requires systems that can work consistently while accommodating local labour markets and individual restaurant needs. Her work at Expedia also provides experience supporting employees across multiple countries and operating environments.
