Lake Forest-based Johnny Rockets Group Inc. named President Mike Nolan its chief executive, effective Oct. 1, replacing John Maguire, who has left the company.
Maguire ran the company since July 2016; he had also led Wilbraham, Mass.-based FIC Restaurants Inc., parent company of the Friendly’s Ice Cream chain, which now has an interim chief executive, George Michel, who had been CEO at Boston Market.
Johnny Rockets and Friendly’s are owned by Sun Capital Partners in Boca Raton, Fla.
Nolan was named president of Johnny Rockets in August 2017 after three months as president of build-your-own pizza chain Pieology and eight months as chief executive of Denver-based fast casual burger chain Smashburger.
Johnny Rockets has 400 restaurants, two-thirds in the U.S., and systemwide sales of about $370 million. It’s the twelfth-largest restaurant chain based in Orange County.
