--- title: "Stefanie Lee Wants to Build Starbird’s Future" url: https://burnaze.com/article/3475b760-5439-48fa-8df7-f0f6c4279ee1 source: "QSR Magazine" original_url: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/growth/finance/stefanie-lee-wants-to-build-starbirds-future/ author: "Ben Coley" category: "Restaurants" industry: "Restaurants" published: 2026-05-18T15:12:50.000Z modified: 2026-10-31T13:16:36.041Z image: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/starbirdstefanielee.jpg --- # Stefanie Lee Wants to Build Starbird’s Future **TL;DR:** Stefanie Lee joins Starbird as its new CFO, bringing 18 years of financial experience from brands like Krispy Kreme and Dine Brands. She will oversee financial infrastructure and multi-state expansion efforts for the fast-casual chicken brand. *By Ben Coley, originally published in QSR Magazine on 2026-05-18. [Read the original](https://www.qsrmagazine.com/growth/finance/stefanie-lee-wants-to-build-starbirds-future/).* ## Key facts - Stefanie Lee is the new CFO of Starbird - Lee has 18 years of finance experience - She has worked at companies like Dine Brands and Krispy Kreme ## Story Starbird just announced Stefanie Lee as its newest CFO— and she is ready to build out the infrastructure to fuel the brand’s growth as it expands beyond its California home market. Lee spent 18 years building financial infrastructure at massive brands like Dine Brands, Krispy Kreme, and TITLE Boxing Club. Now she’s coming back home to restaurants—and she’s ready to make an impact at a once-in-a-career moment. In this exclusive WiRL Q&A with *QSR magazine*, Lee answers nine questions on her career trajectory, the mentors who shaped her, and why Starbird is exactly the opportunity she’s been waiting for. ## Career Path **You’ve spent 18 years in finance across franchising, fitness, restaurants, retail, e-commerce, and sports. That’s a really diverse career path. Walk me through those pivots. What drove each move? Were you always in finance, or did your career take unexpected turns?** Well, truthfully, I was supposed to be a dancer. I went to college on a full-ride dance scholarship and had every intention of owning my own studio. At 16, I actually told my dad, who was a CFO, that his job sounded like the most boring thing I could imagine. He just smiled; maybe he always knew. By my mid-20s, I had given up almost every night and weekend to dance and realized I wanted more balance. My dad was doing some consulting work at Cold Stone Creamery and heard about an opening. I figured I would give it a shot. I got the job, fell in love with the restaurant industry and the analytics, and never looked back. Two years in, I knew finance was where I wanted to go deep. I went back to school, made a move to DriveTime Automotive to sharpen my technical skills, and that role turned out to be an absolute crash course in financial modeling. Every analytical instinct I have was shaped there. But my heart was in restaurants, so when the President of Cold Stone recruited me back—this time to Kahala Brands, which had acquired Cold Stone—I jumped at it. That’s where I really found my footing. I started as a sales analyst, building scorecards, and eventually took over the gift card program, which I ran like a CEO of a business inside a business. I was forecasting cash and sales for the board, owning the results, growing something meaningful. It was the first time I understood what it felt like to have genuine accountability and real impact. That feeling became the thing I chased in every role after. From Kahala, I followed my mentor to Krispy Kreme, then built public company experience at Dine Brands. When PADI came along—a global scuba diving membership organization—I was excited to test whether my skills translated into a completely different world. They did. It was a rigorous, high-pressure environment, and I loved the challenge of it. When Title Boxing Club found me, I was ready to step into a true CFO seat and build something. I built the finance and accounting department from scratch, and there was something deeply personal about that role, too. My dad has had Parkinson’s for 20 years, and boxing is central to his therapy. Saying yes to that job was both a professional decision and a personal one. But restaurants never left me, and I missed it. So when Starbird came around, it felt like coming home. And I think about my dad every time I reflect on that 16-year-old girl who thought his job was boring. Turns out she had more in common with him than she ever imagined. ## Mentors and Sponsors **You’ve built a career in finance across restaurants, fitness, and other industries. Looking back, were there mentors or sponsors early on who believed in you and opened doors? What did those relationships look like?** I have been genuinely lucky when it comes to the people who showed up for me, and I think about that often. My dad has always been my most important mentor. He is the reason I obsess over preparation and accuracy. He taught me to double-check my work, to stay true to my word, and to guard my integrity above everything else. He used to give me what I called his “integrity speech,” and the line that stayed with me was this: losing your integrity is a sprint, and gaining it back is a marathon. I have never forgotten it. Dan Beem, the president of Cold Stone at the time, recruited me back to the company, gave me room to grow, and over the years taught me things like how to keep your composure when the pressure is high, how to walk into any room and belong there, and how to lead through influence rather than authority. James Morgan, vice president of sales and training at PADI, showed me what true partnership in leadership looks like. We led the Americas region as a genuine team in lockstep on every decision and completely aligned in our communication. That experience reshaped how I think about what it means to lead alongside someone, not just near them. At Title Boxing Club, Todd Wadler taught me the power of directness and transparency: how to give real feedback, how to influence a CEO, how to get buy-in when you need to change course. Felicia Alexander, their CRO, showed me how to prepare for the hard conversations and manage the dynamics of a senior leadership team with grace and steadiness. Those are skills I use every single week. The common thread across all of them is that they challenged me, held me to a high standard, and trusted me to rise to it. That is the model I try to bring to every person on my team. **You’ve spent your career at brands like Dine Brands Global, Krispy Kreme, Cold Stone Creamery—places with deep leadership benches. How did you navigate those big organizations? What did you learn from working at that level that stuck with you?** Big organizations are where you learn that influence is the most important currency you have. Title and tenure get you in the room. What you do once you’re there is entirely about trust, relationships, and preparation. At Kahala, Krispy Kreme, and Dine Brands, I learned how to operate at scale—how to build relationships across functions, present to boards, and navigate complexity without losing momentum. I served on the Site Selection Committee at Dine Brands, delivered board-level presentations on franchisee financial health across 3,700 restaurants, and supported financial due diligence on acquisitions. At that level, the stakes are high, and the scrutiny is real, and what earns you credibility is showing up prepared every single time. What I carried out of those organizations is the discipline that scale demands. You learn to build systems and governance that don’t depend on any one person. You learn that the story behind the numbers matters as much as the numbers themselves. You learn patience and how to read a room and know when to push and when to wait. That foundation is something I now bring to every organization I join, regardless of size. The rigor you develop in big companies is what makes you ready to scale one. **You’ve worked at massive, publicly traded companies like Krispy Kreme and Dine Brands, and then moved into a scaling fitness franchise with TITLE Boxing Club. What was different about that move? What were you looking for that the bigger companies didn’t offer?** I wanted to build something and challenge myself. That’s really what it came down to. At large enterprises, your work matters enormously, but you are part of a very large puzzle. At a scaling company, you can see your fingerprints on everything. The decisions you make on Monday show up in the results by Friday. There is an immediacy and ownership to it that I find deeply energizing. Title Boxing Club was the first time I walked into a role and built a finance function from the ground up: the systems, the team, the infrastructure, all of it. And there is something genuinely addictive about that. When you can look at something working well and know that it didn’t exist before you got there, that is a different kind of satisfaction. The fitness industry is fast-paced and demanding, and I loved every bit of the challenge. But more than the industry, it was the stage of growth that excited me. ## Building Financial Infrastructure **You’re now tasked with “building the financial infrastructure” at Starbird. That’s a significant leadership opportunity at a critical moment in the brand’s growth. How do you approach that kind of responsibility? What’s your philosophy on building strong financial systems?** The very first thing I do is listen. Before I touch anything, I want to understand how everything works: the history, the reasoning, what the team has built, and why. You cannot skip the observation phase and build something great. It just doesn’t work that way. What I believe about financial infrastructure is that we are absolutely in the customer service business. We serve the business, the franchisees, and the guests. The goal is to build systems that give leaders clear, fast, accurate information so they can make great decisions with confidence. What makes Starbird such an exciting place to build is the team. They are sharp, creative, and genuinely committed. That energy is contagious. When you walk into a company where people believe in what they are doing, building something meaningful alongside them feels less like work and more like an incredible opportunity you don’t want to waste. **You’ve worked at companies at every scale—from large enterprises to scaling startups. How has that breadth of experience shaped the way you think about leadership and growth? What’s different about leading in each environment?** The breadth has made me adaptable, which I think is the most valuable. At a large company, a significant part of your leadership energy goes toward navigating the organization, influencing across functions, and managing stakeholders at multiple levels. You learn to be patient and strategic. At a scaling company, you are much closer to the actual work, and the impact is immediate and visible. You have to move fast and make good decisions with imperfect information. Having lived in both worlds, I know the kind of rigor and governance that scales. And I know how to roll up my sleeves and operate in a lean, fast environment because I’ve done it and love it. The best leaders I have been around can shift between those modes depending on what the moment needs. They know when to build structure and when to just move. That is what I’ll try to bring to Starbird: the discipline of an enterprise and the energy of a startup. **Throughout your career in finance and restaurant operations, what stands out to you about the people who’ve had the biggest impact on your path forward?** They all told me the truth. Not the comfortable version of it, the real version. The mentor who recruited me back because he saw something in me I hadn’t fully seen in myself—and then challenged me to grow into it. My dad, who never let me take shortcuts with my integrity and whose standards I still hear in my head every time I am about to make a decision. The leaders who modeled what real partnership looks like, who held me accountable, who gave me feedback that made me uncomfortable and better. They invested in me with honesty, high expectations, and genuine belief. It is also exactly the kind of leader I want to be for the people on my team. I want them to feel challenged, supported, and genuinely seen. I want them to look back on their time working with me as a period where they grew, not just professionally, but in how they think about themselves and what they are capable of. ## Joining Starbird **You’ve been selective about the roles you take. What made Starbird the right choice at this point in your career? What does a role need to have to excite you now, versus earlier in your career?** I wasn’t actively looking when Starbird found me. But I knew that wherever I went next, it would be restaurants. I missed it in a way that surprised even me. What made Starbird the right answer is a combination of things that rarely align all at once. The food is genuinely delicious. The brand has great standards, a true commitment to quality, and a concept that resonates with where guests are going. And most importantly, Starbird is at the very beginning of its franchising journey. The decisions being made right now will shape the trajectory of this entire system. That is a once-in-a-career kind of opportunity. Earlier in my career, I was drawn to scale, scope, and recognition. Now what excites me is impact and legacy. I want to be part of building something and to look back in ten years and know that the foundation we built together made the whole thing possible. Starbird is that opportunity, and I am ready to make the most of every single day of it. **If you could go back to your younger self—maybe just starting in finance—what would you tell her? What do you wish you’d known about building a career in this industry as a woman?** I would tell her to be a sponge. Absorb everything. Adapt, change, and keep moving because the path will look nothing like you planned, and that’s the best part of it. You don’t have to be like anyone else. Pay attention to the leaders you respect, take what resonates with you, and make it your own. You belong in every room you walk into. Don’t shrink. Advocate for yourself clearly and without apology, because no one will do it for you, and you are absolutely worth it. Be a “girl’s girl” professionally. Lift up other women, take them with you. Share credit generously. Open doors. This industry always needs more women at the table, and we can always build a longer table. ## Entities - QSR (sector) - QSR Magazine (publication) - restaurant industry (topic) - fast casual (topic) - Ben Coley (person) - Krispy Kreme (company) - Cold Stone Creamery (company) - cfo appointment (topic) - TITLE Boxing Club (company) - Dine Brands (company) - Starbird (company) - multi-state expansion (topic) --- Originally reported by Ben Coley, QSR Magazine (https://www.qsrmagazine.com/growth/finance/stefanie-lee-wants-to-build-starbirds-future/). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/3475b760-5439-48fa-8df7-f0f6c4279ee1).