HMSHosts Hires Industry Vet to be New COO

HMSHost, global restaurateur and leader in travel dining in airports and motorways, appointed industry veteran Joe Thornton as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In this role, he will oversee HMSHost operations of more than 1,700 food and beverage locations in North America, as well as Culinary, Supply Chain, and Marketing & Communications.

Thornton is an experienced operations leader who brings a demonstrated record of achieving results. Most recently, he was Chief Operating Officer at Jamba Juice where he led all field and headquarter functions related to operations, operations services, and training, as well as supporting franchise owners across the country. Prior to Jamba Juice, Joe was with Starbucks Coffee Company for 11 years including as Senior Vice President, where he led the operation of 2,400 company-operated stores and 40,000 employees.

He is actively involved in diversity work and is a keynote speaker on the topic of leadership in the community. He is also a published author, his first book, “The Power Of Or”, was released in February 2020.