El Pollo Loco appoints Damon Thomas Chief Operating Officer, effective Sept 21, 2026

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.

Damon Thomas, 49, named COO effective Sept 21, 2026, reporting to CEO Elizabeth "Liz" Williams; previously SVP Operations at Shake Shack through Sept 2026.
Base salary $425,000; target cash bonus equal to 75% of salary, with a guaranteed minimum 2026 bonus of $225,000.
One-time sign-on grant of restricted stock and performance share units valued at ~$500,000 vesting over three years, plus a $25,000 cash sign-on bonus.
Annual equity awards of ~$400,000 beginning 2027, vesting 33% per year over three years; severance of 12 months of continued base salary if terminated without cause or for good reason.
Prior roles include VP Operations at Yoshinoya America (June 2022-Aug 2023) and senior operations posts at Quest Food Management Services and Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers.

This headline and bullets were generated automatically by deepseek-v4.1-flash:cloud@v2 from the public filing. Read the source on SEC.gov before relying on any specific claim. Not investment advice. See methodology for how this pipeline works.