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There’s no shortage of CEOs dispensing wisdom at a lectern these days. But according to Brian Niccol, the 50-year-old chief executive and board chairman of Chipotle Mexican Grill, new grads don’t need to grasp much beyond the basics.
Niccol delivered the commencement speech earlier this month at Miami University in Ohio, where he graduated in 1996. His bottom line to graduates, he explained in a Wednesday interview with Fortune, was “just a couple of simple things.”
The first few are straightforward. Be a person who believes in yourself and others; be a doer. (In his commencement address, he shouted out six graduating seniors who worked at the local Chipotle during college—those were “serious doers,” he said.) Then Niccol struck a more patriotic tone. “You have to understand our country, and what it provides,” he told Fortune. “If you understand the history of America, if you understand what democracy is in America, I think you have the ability, then, to defend and grow this country and do even greater things [with] the opportunities that are presented today.”
Then he circled back to the bigger picture. “I recommend to these folks: Be a friend; take the time to invest in relationships,” Niccol said. “I think friendships last forever, and when people need you to celebrate a success—or, unfortunately, need a shoulder to deal with some tragedy, you’ll really appreciate having those relationships.”
Perhaps graduates would do well to take Niccol’s advice on relationships, self-confidence and determination—Niccol himself has found great success.
After graduating from Miami Ohio, Niccol began his career in brand management at Procter & Gamble, where he worked for a decade. In November 2005, he pivoted to food, where he’s been ever since. He took a VP-level role at Yum! Brands, the fast-food conglomerate that’s home to Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC, where he ended up rising through the ranks for another decade-plus. His time at Yum! culminated with a CEO appointment at Taco Bell, a position he held for three years—until fast casual came calling.
Chipotle Mexican Grill tapped Niccol, then 44, for the top job in February 2018, when the brand was in crisis, weathering a lowered stock price, drop in customers, and an unfortunate handful of foodborne illness outbreaks, which resulted in a $25 million federal fine.
“Back when the news was breaking about what was happening in China, I remember asking our person in charge of wellness and food safety, ‘What will we need to change in order to make sure we’re doing everything possible in regard to COVID-19?’” Niccol told Fortune in 2021. “Her response was, ‘The good news is we’ve already put in the air filtration systems. We’re already doing wellness checks. We’re already getting paid sick leave. We have zero tolerance around working if you have any symptoms. We were already very aggressive with hand washing, hand sanitizing, wearing gloves.’”
Niccol, alongside longtime CFO Jack Hartung, has been credited with turning the ship around and reinvigorating the chain—and deepening customer loyalty. Chipotle debuted on the Fortune 500, at No. 464, in 2021, when most of the restaurant industry was in pandemic-era freefall. Today, it’s in spot 438.
In 2023, Niccol earned compensation valued at $22.4 million. That’s 1,354 times as much as the median Chipotle employee’s pay in 2023, which was $16,595 according to Chipotle, but the burrito purveyor has outpaced its peers in worker wages, with a starting hourly pay of $17—above minimum wage.
“We had a really strong balance sheet, a really strong people culture, and a really strong digital proposition that helped us weather the storm,” Niccol remarked of Chipotle’s recovery in 2021. “The scale definitely helps, but I think you can’t ever underestimate the creative spirit and resiliency of the restaurant entrepreneur.”
Creative spirit and resiliency are always assets, but maybe they also know a thing or two about U.S. History.
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