News

Subway beefs up innovation team with 4 key leaders

May 30, 2019

Subway promoted its former vice president of culinary innovation, Len Van Popering, to serve as chief brand and innovation officer, where he'll oversee the sandwich chain's teams working in global culinary and innovation, catering, third-party delivery and design and packaging, along with taking the reins for  community engagement and corporate communications functions, a news release said.

Van Popering has been with the brand about two years and has helped transform its market presence by launching new menu items including the Subway Green Goddess Tuna Melt, created in April with Tastemade, a video network that offers food and travel related programming for online audiences.

The chain's leadership said it's also beefing up its brand and innovation team by naming Marie Silloway as vice president for brand management, Renee Hourigan as director/convenience and innovation, and Chef Ciaran Duffy as senior corporate executive chef. 

"Marie, Ciaran and Renee are extremely talented leaders and visionaries. Their experience and expertise make them an ideal fit for our Subway family and I'm confident in their ability to build on the great work our team is doing as we continue to create an even better guest experience," Van Popering said in the release. 

Silloway came to the chain after former positions as Godiva global CMO and Starbucks China head of marketing, while Hourigan was most recently as vice president of marketing for Victorinox Swiss Army. Duffy came to Subway from Moe's Southwest Grill.