The Founder Of Chipotle Is Now A Billionaire

Forbes

Steve Ells opened the first Chipotle in a former ice cream shop near the University of Denver in 1993. Now, three decades and a fast-casual dining revolution later, he’s the first-ever burrito billionaire.  Forbes estimates that Ells—who was Chipotle’s CEO until 2018 and its executive chairman until 2020—is worth $1 billion, making him one of 288 fresh faces on this year’s World’s Billionaires list, publishing Tuesday. He might be the unlikeliest of all.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2025/03/31/the-founder-of-chipotle-steve-ells-is-now-a-billionaire/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, the founder of Chipotle is now a billionaire.

00:06Steve Ells opened the first Chipotle in a former ice cream shop near the University of Denver in

00:111993. Now, three decades and a fast casual dining revolution later, he's the first ever burrito

00:18billionaire. Forbes estimates that Ells, who was Chipotle's CEO until 2018 and its executive

00:25chairman until 2020, is worth $1 billion, making him one of 288 fresh faces on this year's

00:32World's Billionaires list, which was released last week. He might be the unlikeliest of all.

00:39Last year, 130,000 Chipotle employees dished out $11.3 billion worth of chicken, steak,

00:46and barbacoa across 3,700 global stores, enough to make Chipotle the third most valuable restaurant

00:52chain on the planet, with a market capitalization of $68 billion, behind only McDonald's and

00:59Starbucks. Yet the 59-year-old Ells, a classically trained chef more likely to discuss the provenance

01:06of his ingredients than the profitability of his stores, made a few personal moves that seemed

01:11all but sure to keep him off the billionaire's list. Beginning in 1998, he sold huge pieces of

01:17Chipotle to McDonald's in exchange for the fast food chain's help, expanding Chipotle from 16 locations

01:23to nearly 500. By the time the business went public in 2006, it was the Golden Arches, not founder and

01:31CEO Ells, that reaped most of the rewards. McDonald's owned 91% of Chipotle, which rocketed beyond a $1

01:38billion valuation on its first day of trading. Ells owned less than 4%, a steak worth just $44 million at the

01:46time. Then he quickly began offloading what little stock he had, and kept selling even as the price

01:52shot through the roof over the next decade. By 2014, Chipotle's shares were up 1,400% from the IPO,

02:00yet Ells had whittled his stake down to 1%, prompting Forbes to declare that Ells was not a billionaire

02:05and quote, may never be. But Chipotle just kept on rolling, pushing past 1,000 locations in 2010,

02:13then 2,000 by 2016. Meanwhile, Ells got a big boost from Chipotle's compensation plan,

02:20which included an executive pay package granting him and other execs huge new batches of shares

02:25as the price of Chipotle stock rose. By the time Ells left the board in 2020,

02:30he had amassed an estimated $300 million pre-tax from all his sales and still owned around 1% of

02:37Chipotle's stock, worth about $170 million. Chipotle shares rising another 250% in the years since,

02:45and likely investment returns as markets surged, have pushed Ells onto the world's billionaires list,

02:51more than three decades after he opened his first store, and despite his years of selling low,

02:56then watching the stock price rise. Ells declined to comment on Forbes' calculations.

03:01While Ells was working in San Francisco as a sous-chef in the early 1990s, he was inspired by the

03:07city's taquerias. He headed back to his home state of Colorado with hopes of opening a taqueria of his

03:13own, but only to use the profits to finance his real dream, creating a fine dining restaurant.

03:20The first Chipotle opened its doors in 1993, with a strange name, a limited menu,

03:25a novel counter setup, and high prices. In an era of 59-cent Taco Bell burritos, Ells charged more

03:32than $4. Speaking on stage at a Wall Street Journal event last June, he said, quote,

03:38customers would walk in and poke their head in, and then turn and walk away. They didn't get it.

03:44But Ells' fast-casual blend of quality food served at a fast-food pace caught on, and he soon ditched his

03:50fine dining aspirations, expanding to a second store in 1995 and a third in 1996. Ells had 16 locations by

03:591998, but needed a cash infusion to keep growing. Ells' father, Bob Ells, told Bloomberg in a 2015

04:06oral history of Chipotle, quote, we sent the business plan to 13 venture capital or investment

04:11banker-type companies that specialize in the restaurant business. We got rejected by all 13.

04:17McDonalds, then on an acquisition spree, decided to invest. Soon the fast-food giant owned a majority

04:24of Chipotle, though Ells continued to run it and continued to insist on using fresh ingredients

04:29prepared on-site. For full coverage, check out Chase Peterson with Oran's piece on Forbes.com.

04:38This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

04:47.

04:54.

05:06.

05:08.

05:09.

05:11.

Category

Transcript

Recommended