Name: Michael Hynes

New title: Chief financial officer, Noodles & Company 

Previous title: Vice president of finance and accounting, Ruth’s Chris

Michael Hynes will join Noodles & Company as chief financial officer on July 24, the company announced Monday. Hynes joins the company from Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, and he worked for parent company Ruth’s Hospitality for nearly 15 years, according to his LinkedIn. Earlier this year, Ruth’s Hospitality was acquired for $715 million by Darden.

At Ruth’s Hynes, “helped lead the investor relations function, oversaw strategic financial planning and analysis, was responsible for budgeting, forecasting, sales and restaurant expense analysis, and new restaurant financial site evaluation. Additionally, he continued to oversee accounting and financial reporting as well as treasury,” according to the press release.

Noodles’ previous CFO, Carl Lukach, left in early June. The company has hinted it will test dynamic pricing in some markets, and recently added a daily perks feature to its rewards program to incentivize more customers to join. Noodles CEO David Boennighausen said the company’s comparable restaurant sales increased 6.9% year-over-year in Q1 2023 on its most recent earnings call. Noodles also reduced its menu nationwide, cutting about 10% of its menu items, Boennighausen said, which yielded good operational results.