BurgerFi International, one of the nation’s fastest-growing premium fast-casual concepts, QSR’s 2020 Breakout Brand of the Year, and recently voted USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Top Better-Burger chain for 2021, has hired Karl Goodhew as Chief Technology Officer. Karl Goodhew joins BurgerFi after serving as Director of Software Engineering at Macy’s Inc., a $17 billion-dollar, Fortune 500 multi-brand retailer. He has also held positions at Home Depot, YellowPepper that was acquired by Visa in 2020, and JCPenney where he was responsible for all aspects of the 5-star rated consumer mobile apps.
“Our investments in our digital platforms like our mobile application, loyalty program and online ordering capabilities positioned us well to deal with the dramatic changes in consumer behavior caused by the pandemic. Given the increasingly important role technology plays in our ability to deliver a seamless guest experience and operate as efficiently and profitably as possible, we recognized the need to have a Chief Technology Officer. We’re excited to have someone with Karl’s experience and track record joining our team. I know he’ll effectively lead our efforts to leverage technology in an even bigger and better way to help us realize the significant growth opportunities we have,” says Julio Ramirez, CEO of BurgerFi.
For almost a decade, Goodhew has served in leadership roles at various large retailers and start-ups. Goodhew recently helped launch Market by Macy’s, lead the cloud transformation for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores, and built a diverse team of engineers focused on store selling and operations. At YellowPepper, Goodhew built a PCI compliant payment system and integrated the solution into Facebook Messenger. Goodhew has delivered cloud architecture solutions, successful digital customer experiences and secure financial systems throughout his career.
“Goodhew has a proven background in engineering and is a product leader with more than 15 years of experience in software development with an emphasis in quality, delivery, and guest experience while managing and overseeing enterprise level programs. As a data-driven decision maker who ensures alignment with all teams while driving business growth, I am confident Karl will make an extraordinary addition to the BurgerFi executive team,” says Ophir Sternberg, Executive Chairman of BurgerFi.
Goodhew has an architecture and engineering background with thorough understanding of e-commerce, mobile, web technologies as well as modern store systems, legacy systems, and enterprise architecture. He will be working on the modernization of the drive-thru systems at BurgerFi and amplification of the mobile application.
“I am excited to build an engineering team that will enable capabilities and features in the loyalty, delivery, and payments space. We are just starting the journey to provide a customer experience that gives the customer the best burger selections when and where they want to order, however they choose. Additionally, I am thrilled to take on the capabilities of BurgerFi’s extensive omnichannel platforms. Our customers will be excited and rewarded by the leadership team’s plans to drive additional innovation throughout our customer experience. By testing new technology and enabling innovative multi-channel services, we’ll position BurgerFi for explosive growth,” says Karl Goodhew Chief Technology Officer of BurgerFi.
Goodhew has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Georgia.
