Burgerville USA’s CEO is leaving the business to resume her leadership at The Taylor Group, a coaching and leadership training company she co-founded.
Burgerville’s parent company, The Holland Inc., will name an interim CEO before Jill Taylor’s last day on Jan. 31, according to a statement from Burgerville.
During her five years as CEO, Taylor led the company to sign the first fast-food chain labor union agreement, which was ratified in mid-December.
Among her accomplishments, Taylor led the company to build a digital platform and digital order and reward platform, which helped the company navigate the pandemic and supply and labor shortages.
The company also became more “green” under her leadership, introducing menu items that helped local ranchers and regenerative agriculture practices. It brought more plant-based options to the menu and increased local food sourcing from 75 to nearly 80 percent, according to the statement.
Taylor also dealt with the company’s data breach in 2018 that led to a class-action lawsuit.
“For more than 25 years, I have been a member of the Burgerville family, working hard to develop responsible community leaders with purpose and life mission, and to fulfill the company mission of ‘Serve with Love,’ Taylor said in a news release. “I am grateful for the opportunity to have served as Burgerville’s CEO. It is the people who have made Burgerville such a great company — our employees, our suppliers and vendors and our guests and communities, all of whom have contributed.”
Taylor’s shift to Portland-based The Taylor Group will bring her back to the consulting company she and her mother founded. The website lists Taylor as its chief strategy officer.
In 2019, Taylor became Burgerville’s CEO after acting as interim CEO since 2017. Before that, she had been involved with Burgerville for more than two decades as a consultant from The Taylor Group.
The union that represents workers at five Oregon Burgerville locations was certified in 2016, shortly before Taylor took over as interim CEO. (None of the unionized locations are in Clark County.)
The company and the union held 51 negotiation sessions before reaching a tentative agreement for the contract in late November.
“We’re grateful to Jill for supporting Burgerville during these last five years as CEO and in other roles for many years before that,” Jennifer Mears of The Holland Inc., Burgerville’s parent company, said in a news release. “She has led the company through changes and challenges, and she has helped us continue to focus on and invest in our people, our region and our guest experience.”
