Longtime McDonald’s executive Debbie Roberts has joined Panera Bread as executive vice president and chief operations officer for the fast-casual chain.

Roberts joins the Panera team after three decades at McDonald's, where she was most recently East zone president with responsibility for 7,000 restaurants in 11 regions.

“We are thrilled to welcome Debbie to Panera and are looking forward to her bringing her strong record of cross-functional partnership, results-driven engagement, and especially, her focus on people as the core of operational excellence,” says Niren Chaudhary, Panera CEO.