Top Women in Restaurant Technology Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Jerilyn Quintanilla
Hospitality Technology’s Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards, now in their fifth year, recognize women who are making their mark in a male-dominated industry. In the coming weeks we will be profiling each of the 10 honorees in-depth on hospitalitytech.com/topwomen21.
Lifetime Achievement
Jerilyn Quintanilla, Director Restaurant Systems at Qdoba Restaurants
2020 was a huge year for Qdoba. Jerilyn Quintanilla, Director Restaurant Systems, and her team implemented an entirely new website and mobile app. This was critical to complete integration with third-party delivery partners and to launch curbside chainwide. Qdoba also rolled out EMV, which was planned in 2020 but accelerated due to COVID-19.
This rollout provided not only a touchless experience, but also increased security and reduced PCI scope. Quintanilla and her team also completed the successful rollout of a POS upgrade and began a pilot of kitchen display systems that are rolling out now.
“COVID has enforced societies need for convenience, and I believe we’ll continue to see new and improved technology that supports a variety of convenience-based sales channels, customer engagement and payment options,” says Quintanilla.
Watch Jerilyn Quintanilla accept the Top Women in Restaurant Technology Lifetime Achievement Award at MURTEC. (30-second video.)
Quintanilla started her career as a restaurant manager. “With a background in science and a passion for recipes I was excited to be offered an opportunity to transfer into IT as product manager for a new back-office inventory system. I’ve been fortunate to not only build a career in IT, but also to continue working in the restaurant industry,” she said.
In general she likes technology that’s intuitive and easy for end-users to use and minimizes the need for manual procedures, “and ultimately allows restaurant teams to focus on serving flavorful food and meeting company goals,” she said.
No I in Team
Quintanilla is quick to credit her team. “This nomination and award are really a testament to the hard work and dedication my entire team puts forth every day. I’m grateful for the recognition, but I wouldn’t be here without them.”
When reflecting back on her career in restaurant technology, Quintanilla says she's most proud of the work done when QDOBA was sold. "The transition was to carve out and stand up a new IT infrastructure," she explained. "The entire team did a great job thinking through details, sequencing tasks and executing the plan; but I’m most proud that through all of the change there was very little impact on our restaurants or day-to-day operations."
About the Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards
Winners were chosen by Hospitality Technology magazine and members of its Research Advisory Board. Winners will be profiled in the Summer 2021 issue of Hospitality Technology magazine and throughout June and July in digital profiles on www.hospitalitytech.com. The winners were announced and honored during a virtual awards program on April 14 at the 26th annual MURTEC (Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference), which was streamed online.