Kathy-Jo Payette

Kathy-Jo Payette joined Panera in April 2020 as Chief People Officer, where her experience in operations and HR leadership roles spanning retail and corporate aspects of business add significant value, breadth, and depth to Panera.

Kathy-Jo brings along extensive HR, people, and culture leadership experience with an intentional focus on and passion for talent management, change management, and culture transformation.

Prior to joining Panera, she most recently held the Chief Human Resources Officer position at Cumberland Farms, a convenience store chain. Before that, Kathy-Jo spent 22 years with CVS Health in increasing leadership roles, including five years as Senior Vice President of Human Resources, CVS Pharmacy, and over five years as Vice President of Talent Management. While at CVS, she led through significant retail growth as the company expanded from 1,000 to 8,000 stores, integrated 2,000 pharmacies with Target, and operated 19 distribution centers.

Kathy-Jo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Stanford University.