Name: Zipporah Allen
New title: Chief commercial officer, Sweetgreen
Previous title: Chief business officer, Strava
Allen joined Sweetgreen effective Tuesday, according to a press release. She was hired by the struggling fast casual salad brand after a stint as an executive at Strava, a social fitness subscription platform. Allen will be responsible for “sharpening brand positioning and menu, driving demand, and deepening overall guest engagement,” at Sweetgreen.
At Strava, Allen’s work “drove topline and bottom line growth, including an increase in the platform’s community by 45% to over 150 million members in 190 countries,” according to the press release. Prior to her work with the social fitness brand, Allen served as chief digital officer at Taco Bell from 2019 to 2022, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also worked at Pizza Hut, including a stint as chief marketing officer, and McDonald’s, where she rose to director of global menu strategy.
At the Yum Brands subsidiary, Allen led a far-reaching digital transformation, according to the press release, with changes to various channels driving digital orders from 3% to 20% of sales. Taco Bell’s current digital loyalty program launched under Allen, and drew in 12 million consumers, per the release.
Sweetgreen had a difficult start to 2025, with negative comparable sales growth in the first two quarters. The brand ultimately cut its Ripple Fries, which added too much operational complexity. Earlier this year, Sweetgreen dropped its tiered loyalty program — Sweetpass — and shifted to a less complicated points-based program, SG Rewards. That channel will likely be a key tool for Allen’s efforts to improve the brand’s outreach.
After an initial drop in frequency among some high-frequency consumers, SG Rewards “is growing and 90-day frequency trends have steadily improved. We're also seeing early signs of frequency recovery in our former Sweetpass+ cohort as a result of our personalized CRM offers,” CEO Jonathan Neman said on the brand’s Q2 earnings call. With its menu, value proposition and loyalty program all in flux, Sweetgreen could use a strong hand, like Allen, at the tiller.
Sweetgreen is in a difficult position not just because of its falling comps. The roughly 250-unit brand is deeply unprofitable, with a $26.4 million loss from operations in Q2 according to its latest earnings release. And while it has undertaken a range of different moves of late — more suburban development and automated digital makelines — its losses have actually worsened since 2024, when it posted a $16.2 million operational loss in Q2.
