Krispy Kreme is in the midst of a quiet reinvention. The nearly 90‑year‑old brand is stretching into more than 40 countries, modernizing its business model and embracing new technology, all while trying to preserve the warm, nostalgic glow that has always defined a box of its doughnuts.
Sitting at the center of that transformation is Marissa Andrada, an independent director on the Krispy Kreme board and chair of its Remuneration and Nomination Committee. A veteran people and culture executive who was Chipotle’s first chief people officer and has held senior HR roles at Starbucks, Universal Studios, Kate Spade, Red Bull, Pizza Hut and GameStop, Andrada now helps oversee how the board marries strategy, talent and governance to drive sustainable, profitable growth.
In the following interview, Andrada explains how the board is sharpening Krispy Kreme’s strategy for sustainable, profitable growth, reshaping its own composition and using workforce insight and technology to build resilience in a fast‑moving, multigenerational consumer landscape.
What are some of the most pressing topics that your board is tackling these days?
Most pressing is to have a strong strategy that supports and drives sustainable, profitable growth. In a fast-moving industry, driving profitability through relevance and responsibility continues to be at the forefront of our growth discussions.
Alongside relevance and responsibility, and equally critical, is evolving the business model and ensuring organization capability to drive the strategy. With a presence in more than 40 countries and as a business established almost 90 years ago, we are continuing to introduce the brand to new markets in new ways while remaining true to our mission and values.
How are you mitigating some of your company’s toughest challenges?
We mitigate tough challenges through an approach that’s first and foremost rooted in having the right strategy as a foundation to support sustainable and profitable growth. With aligned goals, transparent communication becomes the key to mitigating challenges before they become issues.
With the right management team and board directors in place, strategy execution and communication complement each other to drive connection and alignment. Having a board that’s diverse in background and experience helps us lead with integrity and conviction, we can help support and drive change with all stakeholders’ interests being considered.
The hard conversations are made much easier when there is continued transparent conversations happening and when you know and understand more about the business and people behind it. I love meeting with employees beyond the C-Suite to really understand and identify how company leaders are navigating potential issues or driving positive change and how the board can continue to support a brand transformation.
How has your approach to recruiting new board members evolved?
Last year, we refreshed our board membership. Beyond finding competencies that complement our skills matrix, it was important to lean into executives with deep experience in fast moving consumer goods, restaurant and retail where they have led through culture and tech transformations.
We are a fast-moving culturally connected brand that’s been around for more than eight decades. That means we have a huge multigenerational fan base—from those who still have newspaper subscriptions to those who create TikTok content. We need board members who understand our consumer and can support our larger business strategy.
Most desirable will always be people who can relate to and believe in the company mission to maximize contributions, drive positive change and contribute to the transformation we are all a part of.
How does your board keep up with the opportunities and risks of emerging technologies?
Enterprise tech will always be an area of both risk and advancement, however it’s not about going with the trends. It’s about understanding how new and emerging tech aligns with and supports your value chain—creating efficiencies along the way without unnecessary disruption. We lean into our experts and connect on this topic regularly—transparent communication is a key part of growth here too.
What are your strategies to ensure your company remains resilient?
Resilience is such an important word—there will be ups and downs for all companies as it’s a part of business cycle.
From my perspective, a hugely valuable tool for resilience is looking at your unique workforce—understanding what employees think, how they feel, what’s trending, what’s fear inducing? How is the management team utilizing this knowledge to best serve and empower the workforce so that they can drive resilience from the ground up and connection out to all stakeholders—shareholders, consumers and partners?
