• by Teresa Buyikian , August 6, 2025

The country’s largest pasta fast casual has a new leader.

Noodles & Company has promoted Joseph D. Christina to the role of president and CEO, beginning Aug. 31.

Christina moves into the new leadership role after serving as the company’s president and COO since earlier this year. He succeeds former CEO Drew Madsen, who according to the company, is “stepping down as CEO for personal medical reasons but will facilitate the transition through August and continue to serve on the company’s board of directors.”

“Joe’s experience as a CEO at multiple restaurant concepts, combined with his leadership style and passion for operations excellence, will set Noodles up well for future success,” says Jeff Jones, chairman of the board for Noodles and Company.

Christine spent the majority of his career at Burger King, where over the course of more than 29 years, he served in various roles, lastly rising to the position of senior vice president of U.S .franchise operations for the Western division. He then moved to Church’s Chicken, where he spent more than nine years and eventually became president and CEO. He most recently served as CEO of Tijuana Flats Tex-Mex restaurants, from 2022 to 2024.

Noodles and Company, which has approximately 469 restaurants in 31 states, just rescheduled its second quarter earnings call to Aug. 13. For the first quarter of 2025, the company reported revenue increased 2.0% to $123.8 million as compared to $121.4 million in the first quarter of 2024. Overall restaurant sales increased 4.4% system-wide in the first quarter, but the company also reported a net loss of $9.1 million, which was compared to the net loss of $6.1 million for the first quarter of 2024.