Marie Zhang is the Chief Supply Chain Officer for Blaze Pizza. She joined Blaze the first week of COVID in March 2020, since then, she spent over 2 years successfully navigating Blaze supply chain through the global supply chain disruption. In this position she is responsible for executing the strategic direction of Blaze Supply Chain including the purchasing of all food and beverage, equipment, packaging, and distribution for over 350 Blaze restaurants across the U.S., Canada, and Middle East. Her primary focus is to develop strong teams to drive business results in quality and food safety, strategic sourcing and cost management, logistics and supply chain integration, new product commercialization, field execution and supplier diversity.
Prior to Blaze, Marie spent 5 years as Global Vice President of Supply Chain for FOCUS Brands, where she helped FOCUS reached #6th U.S. licensing company through her leadership at FOCUS Brands ConsumerPackaging Goods division, she also helped FOCUS launches over 300 international locations by implementing strategic local/regional sourcing model through her supply chain leadership at FOCUS International division.
Prior to FOCUS Brands, Marie spent 3 years as Chief Supply Chain Officer at YUM Brands and 5 years as Vice president of Supply Chain at the HoneyBaked Ham company. In these roles, she successfully supported the franchisee communities by effectively managing their cost of goods, ensuring supplies and maintaining the highest food safety and product quality. Marie holds two master’s degrees from Iowa State: Chemistry and Food Science.
Marie currently lives in Huntington Beach, CA.