American West Restaurant Group Names Jason Cochran as CEO

LOS ANGELES — American West Restaurant Group, Pizza Hut's third largest franchise group with Pizza Hut restaurants in Southern California and Utah has announced the appointment of Jason Cochran as CEO. Cochran is has more than 25 combined years in retail and restaurants leading innovation along with a reputation to disrupt legacy thinking.

"I'm thrilled to join the AWRG team," said Cochran. "I believe that AWRG is poised for growth and success. Now is clearly the right time to advance business process, innovative thinking, improve customer experience and I look forward to bringing my passion for leading operational excellence across the organization."

Cochran joins AWRG from Chipotle, where he spent the last 4 years as Vice President of Operations. During his tenure, he oversaw the execution of hundreds of new locations, operational excellence, and worked cross functionally to achieve world class food safety and digital transformation. 

Prior to Chipotle, Cochran held various operations and executive leadership roles with GameStop over 14 years. Prior to departing GameStop, Jason led 3,900 U.S. video game stores and the omni-channel business to achieve over $6 billion in revenue.

Cochran received his MBA from Southern Methodist University (SMU Cox School of Business) in Dallas, Texas. During his graduate studies, Cochran was selected as an SMUs Poets & Quants "Best and Brightest" and honored as a Distinguished Business Leader by the SMU Cox School of Business Leadership Center.