Raphael Stevens

Arizona Coyotes CEO Xavier Gutierrez is partnering with three other Latino executives to found Latinos in Sports, a platform designed to promote Hispanic advancement in sports.
The new venture launched its first event in Miami last week.
The founders of Latinos in Sports want the organization to facilitate commerce in Hispanic businesses and to introduce Hispanic talent to Latino and non-Latino sports leaders.

Xavier Gutierrez, CEO of the Arizona Coyotes and CEO of ImpactX Sports Group (L), and Pedro Guerrero, CEO of Guerrero Media.
Courtesy: Guerrero Media

When the National Hockey League’s Arizona Coyotes sold its franchise to Utah last month, the league didn’t just lose an Arizona-based team — it also lost its only active Latino chief executive.
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Xavier Gutierrez became the Arizona team’s CEO in 2019 after Alex Meruelo, a Cuban-American billionaire, bought the Coyotes a year earlier. Gutierrez had previously been a managing director at private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group and knew Meruelo for about a decade before becoming the NHL’s first-ever Latino CEO.

It took a Latino owner to hire a Latino CEO, Gutierrez explained in an interview, because Hispanics are not well-represented in leadership positions in professional sports.
There are 153 major professional sports franchises in the U.S. and Canada across the NHL, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer.
Gutierrez, who is technically still CEO of the Arizona Coyotes even though the franchise is inactive, says he is the only non-owner Latino CEO. Jorge Mas, co-owner of the MLS’ Inter Miami CF who is also CEO, makes for two Latino CEOs, according to Gutierrez.
That is something Gutierrez vows to change. He is part of the founding group behind Latinos in Sports, a platform dedicated to bringing together Latinos and non-Latinos in professional sports, media and marketing to showcase Latino talent in leadership positions. CNBC is the official media partner of Latinos in Sports.
“The results speaks for themselves that you don’t have that leadership today,” Gutierrez said. “You look at the commissioners and their offices that are relying on Latino consumers to be the viewers, the ticket buyers, the jersey buyers. I think you need to have Latino talent in those seats. Our goal is just to say, ‘Listen, this isn’t because you’re bad people. That’s not it at all. It’s because maybe you haven’t met the cohorts that exist.'”

Gutierrez and Pedro Antonio Guerrero, the CEO of executive advancement company Guerrero Media, introduced Latinos in Sports at an event in Miami last week.
Vianni Lubus, head of audience and engagement at Guerrero Media, and Mike Valdes-Fauli, chief operating officer at Chemistry Cultura, a digital advertising firm focused on Latinos in the U.S., are also involved with the platform.
The four executives share a goal to increase U.S. Hispanic representation throughout leadership roles in sports. José Feliciano, the co-founder of Clearlake Capital and co-owner of the Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club, also spoke at last week’s Miami event to promote more Latino ownership in sports.

José E. Feliciano speaks onstage during the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala in New York City on Dec. 9, 2021.
Slaven Vlasic | Getty Images

“My fervent hope is that we make more progress on the ownership front,” Feliciano said. “Decision-makers in seats of influence are starting to recognize that Latinos can and should be owners in every sense of the word.”
The goal of Latinos in Sports is to be the go-to place to foster a culture of Hispanic advancement in the industry of sports, Gutierrez said. The executives hope to turn the platform into a business that focuses on investment in Hispanic-founded startups, conducting research on U.S. Hispanic trends and bringing together both Latino and non-Latino sports leaders for networking.
“You do deals with people you know,” Gutierrez said. “It’s really going to be a place for commerce, for talent acquisition, for conversation, data and insights.”
The organization also hopes to push Latino sports executives to make more conscious decisions about appealing to Latino audiences.
Warner Bros. Discovery debuted an alternative broadcast during last year’s MLB playoffs called “Peloteros,” which featured former and current Latino baseball players speaking to a Hispanic audience. The broadcast had to be in English because Warner Bros. Discovery does not have the Spanish-language broadcast rights.
Having more Latino executives making content decisions can help draw in audiences that have largely been ignored, said Luis Silberwasser, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports.
“It was a good example of what we’re striving to do in terms of diversifying content,” said Silberwasser. “You need diversity of voice in the production group to come up with this.”
It is essential for Latinos in Sports to connect Latinos with non-Latinos, Gutierrez said, because non-Latinos are overwhelmingly in positions of leadership today.
The organization’s next event will be at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, in September during the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Gutierrez and Guerrero chose that event specifically because it traditionally appeals to white Americans.
“It’s important to have non-Latino decision-makers in the room,” Gutierrez said.
“Latinos need to connect with each other to build partnerships like this one in an effort to build our table,” Guerrero said. “At the end of the day, it’s the priority of a lot of Latinos in positions of power like Xavier [Gutierrez]. The key for us is to grow our population size.” More

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Wingstop and Sweetgreen all beat Wall Street’s estimates for their quarterly same-store sales growth.
Fast-casual restaurant chains haven’t seen the same consumer slowdown as the broader industry.
Their customers tend to have higher income and are benefiting from the perception that they’re a better value.

A food delivery messenger carries a take-out bag outside a Sweetgreen in Manhattan, New York City, on Sept. 14, 2023.
Jeenah Moon | The Washington Post | Getty Images

High-income consumers helped Chipotle Mexican Grill, Wingstop and Sweetgreen report strong sales this quarter, bucking the broader consumer slowdown that’s been hurting other eateries.
As a whole, the restaurant industry has seen sales slump and traffic decline as customers pull back their spending. McDonald’s, Starbucks and KFC owner Yum Brands were among the restaurant companies that reported a weak start to 2024.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said diners are hunting for deals and good value; the chain is working to introduce a $5 value meal, CNBC reported Friday. And John Peyton, chief executive of Applebee’s owner Dine Brands, said the steepest sales drop-off has come from customers making less than $50,000.
Fast-casual chains appear to be the exception to the trend. The sector saw higher traffic growth than any other dining sector from November to February, according to GuestXM data.
In general, customers of fast-casual chains tend to have higher incomes than those of the fast-food sector, insulating the segment somewhat from low-income consumers’ spending pullback. High-income consumers haven’t felt the same pinch as those in lower-income brackets.
Wingstop saw its same-store sales soar 21% in the quarter. CEO Michael Skipworth told CNBC that Wingstop’s customer base used to be largely low-income customers but is now roughly three-quarters higher-income diners. He also credited the company’s success to growing brand awareness and its chicken sandwich, which often serves as an entry point for new customers.
Similarly, most of Sweetgreen’s locations are in high-income neighborhoods, CEO Jonathan Neman said last year. On Thursday, the salad chain reported first-quarter same-store sales growth of 5% and raised its full-year outlook for same-store sales growth. Traffic was flat, but executives said bad weather and the inclusion of New Year’s Day and Easter hurt its business.

Value counts

Chipotle and other chains have also gotten a boost from consumers’ perception of their value as the cost of Big Macs and Whoppers rise.
Last year, fast-food chains raised prices more dramatically than fast-casual chains, according to TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles. While a bowl or salad from a fast-casual restaurant will still be more expensive than a burger or chicken tenders, the pricing gap between the two segments has narrowed.
“You can see that fast casual is just a superior value for that consumer, given the quality of what they’re getting,” Charles said.
For example, Chipotle’s quarterly same-store sales grew 7%, fueled by a 5.4% increase in foot traffic. The burrito chain has a strong perception of value among diners, CEO Brian Niccol told analysts on the company’s April 24 conference call. Chipotle executives have also previously emphasized that most of its customers come from higher-income brackets.
Many fast-casual chains, including Chipotle and Sweetgreen, have also been trying to improve their “throughput,” an industry term that refers to how many bowls or salads their employees can make. That focus on efficiency means their restaurants’ service is getting faster — leading to more transactions, Charles said.

Investors had already been betting that fast-casual chains would be an outlier in consumers’ eatery spending. Shares of Chipotle, Shake Shack and Wingstop have all risen at least 35% in 2024. And Sweetgreen’s stock has doubled in value in the same time, excluding its 34% increase on Friday alone. For comparison, the S&P 500 has risen roughly 9% so far this year.
But there are still exceptions to the segment trend. For example, Portillo’s, known for its Italian beef sandwiches and Chicago-style hot dogs, said its same-store sales shrank 1.2% in the first quarter. The chain blamed the weak results on “miserable weather across the Midwest,” particularly at the start of the quarter.
Likewise, Shake Shack said its quarterly traffic, which was negative, would’ve been flat if not for bad weather in January and February. The burger chain reported same-store sales growth of 1.6% but noted that the metric improved sequentially every month. In April, its same-store sales rose 4.9% year over year.
Mediterranean fast-casual chain Cava isn’t expected to report its first-quarter results until May 28. But TD Cowen’s Charles said he’s expecting a stronger quarter for Cava, given its competitors’ performances.

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Goldman Sachs, American Express and others top the list of best companies for working parents in a new study.
Companies that best support parents offer 20 or more weeks of paid parental leave for both primary and secondary caregivers.

Vadym Buinov | Moment | Getty Images

Working parents, guardians or caretakers know the challenge of striking the delicate balance between work and care responsibilities.
From paid parental leave to quality health-care coverage and equal pay that cover child care costs, it’s become a priority for workers to find an employer that recognizes parents have specific needs.

With no federal oversight of workplace benefits like paid leave and caregiving policies, corporate leaders are being asked to take the lead.
CNBC partner Just Capital looked through policy disclosures at America’s largest companies to find the best in the country at meeting these needs.
“Americans are very clear about what they believe companies should prioritize: their workers,” said Alison Omens, president of Just Capital.

Top companies for parents

Goldman Sachs, American Express, Deckers Outdoor, S&P Global and Splunk are the top companies for parents in 2024, according to Just Capital’s research.
All five companies offer the following benefits: 20 or more weeks of paid parental leave for both primary and secondary caregivers; parental leave parity for all caregivers; and backup subsidized dependent care for their employees.

“What the pandemic uncovered and remains true today, is that for working parents, particularly for mothers who disproportionately provide caregiving, a key part is their paid parental leave,” said Omens.

Courtesy: Lauren and Mario Washington

S&P Global offers paid parental leave policies of 26 weeks. Company employees and married couple, Lauren and Mario Washington, told CNBC that taking parental leave together after welcoming their second daughter in 2021 had a profound impact on their family’s dynamic and well-being.
“Those initial weeks seem fleeting, but they tangibly enhanced our family’s balance and relationship,” Lauren said. “Mario’s involvement helped our oldest daughter adjust from being an only child to a big sister and help me focus on nurturing our newborn and my own recovery.”
The human resources profession, however, takes a different view regarding the impact of parental leaves on business. The more “direct cost,” according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), is an employee’s pay over the course of the number of weeks that they are on leave. SHRM argues that employers already have salaries factored into budgets.
The “indirect costs” are the loss of productivity during an employee’s leave, temporary replacement and cost of administering a paid leave program.
“Paid parental leave is an expensive proposition,” said Yvette Lee, an HR knowledge advisor at SHRM. “But turnover of key talent may be even more costly.”
Lee said the investment in paid parental leave and similar policies may make sense in the long run.
Many companies have introduced measures to ensure equity in the workplace for all employees.
Deckers Outdoor is targeting gender parity in leadership positions by 2030, and Goldman Sachs has set a hiring goal for women in both entry-level and senior management positions to reach 50% and 40%, respectively.
“We invest in our success as a company by investing in our people,” said a spokesperson for S&P Global.

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McDonald’s is working to introduce a value meal in U.S. stores to help offset an increasingly challenging environment for consumers.
The $5 meal could include four items: a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink.
The potential new offering comes at a time when low-income consumers are beginning to pull back on spending, particularly at fast-food brands.

A McDonalds located on Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2024.
Robert Gauthier | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

McDonald’s is working to introduce a value meal in U.S. stores to help offset an increasingly challenging environment for consumers, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
The people said the $5 meal could include four items: a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink. The value meal was first reported by Bloomberg News.

The potential new offering comes at a time when low-income consumers are beginning to pull back on spending, particularly at fast-food brands. Mentions of low-income consumers on company earnings calls are at their highest levels in nearly two years, according to data from Bank of America. Executives from McDonald’s to Wendy’s to Dave and Buster’s have all noted the restraint in spending. 
McDonald’s recently reported a mixed first quarter, with U.S. same-store sales slightly missing expectations. Higher prices helped grow average checks, but some consumers pulled back as a result of the steeper costs.
“Consumers continue to be even more discriminating with every dollar that they spend as they faced elevated prices in their day-to-day spending, which is putting pressure on the [quick-service restaurant] industry,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the company’s earnings call on April 30.
He added that McDonald’s has to be “laser-focused” on affordability to attract diners.
On the call, Kempczinski said the company is working on a national value deal in the U.S., and the company’s Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden said the U.S. leadership team was working closely with owner-operators in this environment. McDonald’s corporate and franchisees, who run 95% of McDonald’s locations and weigh in on such offerings, are often at odds over promotions that could eat into owners’ profits.

An initial proposal by McDonald’s for the $5 value meal did not clear necessary hurdles, and additional details are now being discussed, according to a person familiar with the process. A second person said Coca-Cola added marketing funds to the equation to make the deal more appealing.
McDonald’s and Coca-Cola declined to comment to CNBC.
— CNBC’s Amelia Lucas contributed to this article.

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Fat Brands and its chair Andy Wiederhorn were indicted for a “sham” loan scheme that netted him $47 million.
Wiederhorn, 58, stepped down as CEO last year following the company’s disclosure that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating him.
Fat Brands’ portfolio includes Fatburger, Johnny Rockets and Twin Peaks.

Andy Wiederhorn, former Fatburger CEO.

Federal authorities on Friday charged Fat Brands and its chair Andy Wiederhorn of committing a brazen scheme that netted him $47 million in bogus loans from the restaurant company that owns Fatburger, Johnny Rockets and Twin Peaks.
Shares of Fat Brands closed down 27% on Friday. The company has a market value of $92 million.

Fat Brands, Wiederhorn and a few other people were criminally indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles for wire fraud, tax evasion and other counts related to the alleged scheme.
In a separate civil complaint, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused the company and Wiederhorn of violations related to the same conduct.
“These charges are unprecedented, unwarranted, unsubstantiated and unjust,” Fat Brands counsel Brian Hennigan said in a statement. “They are based on conduct that ended over three years ago and ignore the Company’s cooperation with the investigation.”
Wiederhorn, who was convicted two decades ago in a criminal case that involved similar conduct, was separately criminally charged in an indictment in Los Angeles of being a federal felon in possession of a handgun and ammunition.
“We look forward to making clear in court that this is an unfortunate example of government overreach — and a case with no victims, no losses and no crimes,” Wiederhorn’s attorney Nicola Hanna said.

As chief executive of Fat Brands, Wiederhorn, 58, allegedly directed the company to loan its own funds to him, with no intention of ever paying the “sham” loans back, according to the indictment.
The SEC alleges that Wiederhorn then used the cash to pay for private jets, first-class airfare, luxury vacations, mortgage and rent payments, plus nearly $700,000 in “shopping and jewelry.”
Wiederhorn stepped down as CEO last year, following the company’s disclosure that the SEC was investigating him. In February, Fat Brands disclosed it had received a Wells notice from the agency, meaning the SEC was planning to take action against it.
Wiederhorn’s alleged fraud accounted for roughly 44% of Fat Brands’ revenue between 2017 and 2021, which meant the company often was not able to pay its bills. In those situations, Wiederhorn would allegedly redirect funds from credit cards paid for by Fat Brands back to the company with assistance from his son Thayer, who was then the company’s chief marketing officer and is now its chief operating officer.
Fat Brands never disclosed the cash transfers as related party transactions to investors. In 2020, the cash transfers were written off after the company’s merger with Fog Cutter Capital Group, Fat Brands’ largest shareholder, which also happened to be majority owned by Wiederhorn, according to the SEC complaint.
Ron Roe, the company’s vice president of finance and former chief financial officer, and Rebecca Hershinger, another former CFO, were also named as defendants in the SEC complaint. Hershinger and tax advisor William Amon were also named in the indictment. Hershinger’s attorney Michael Proctor said in a statement to CNBC that the charges are baseless.
Additionally, as far back as 2006, Wiederhorn has owed taxes for his personal income to the IRS. He also did not report any of the so-called loans from Fat Brands as income, according to the indictment. As of March 2021, Wiederhorn owed $7.74 million to the IRS for his unpaid personal taxes.
Twenty years ago, he pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return and paying an illegal gratuity to an associate while leading Fog Cutter Capital. He paid a $2 million fine and spent more than a year in federal prison in Oregon. During his time in prison, Fog Cutter Capital’s board opted to pay him a bonus equal to the fine and continued paying his salary, a decision that attracted widespread criticism.
Wiederhorn is expected to be arraigned Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. The remaining defendants’ arraignments are expected to be in the first week of June.

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