Greg Levin took over as CEO at BJ’s Restaurants Inc. a year ago, when Gregory Trojan retired from the role while still retaining his seat on the company’s board of directors.
Tom Houdek, BJ’s vice president of strategy and financial planning and analysis, assumed Levin’s former role of CFO.
Levin joined BJ’s as the CFO in 2005. In 2018, he added president and secretary to his title at the company.
During his 16 years at BJ’s, Levin “has consistently assumed additional leadership and operations support responsibilities while maintaining excellent stewardship of the company’s financial affairs and capital markets interactions,” BJ’s Chairman Jerry Deitchle said in a statement. “He is ideally suited to become our next CEO as we continue to build on a culture that prioritizes collaboration, inclusiveness, a commitment to excellence and gold-standard levels of operating execution and hospitality.”
Before BJ’s, Levin served as the CFO of California Pizza Kitchen, now based in Costa Mesa.
He’s a Southern California native who grew up in Tustin. He notes that the elementary school he attended was once tidied up by a BJ’s-led community task force, which mobilizes employees to clean schools and build houses with Habitat for Humanity, among other charitable efforts.
—Kaitlin Aquino
