Maria Rivera becomes CEO of doughnut brand The Salty
The former Krispy Kreme US president takes the top job at the Miami chain known for viral drops and 22 company-owned stores.
The Salty, the Miami doughnut-and-coffee brand built on viral drops, has named Maria Rivera as its first chief executive, pulling in an operator who spent a decade scaling Krispy Kreme and two smaller chains.
Rivera was Krispy Kreme's US president before running Smalls Sliders and Starbird, a fried-chicken chain, and founding RC Hospitality Group, which backs early-stage, founder-led brands, several of them led by Latinas. She met The Salty's founders in spring 2026 at a CREATE conference hosted by Nation's Restaurant News, then helped with due diligence during the brand's first institutional fundraise. The board asked her to lead the company afterward. It is one of several hospitality boardroom changes this week; in the UK, Greene King also named a new chief executive.
From a Wynwood camper to 22 units
We don't sell doughnuts. We sell a doughnut pastry.
Amanda Pizarro started The Salty in 2015 as a popup out of a camper in Miami's Wynwood neighbourhood, with her then-boyfriend, now husband, Andy Rodriguez. Both are Cuban-American. Pizarro is now chief brand officer and Rodriguez sits on the board. The company operates 22 company-owned locations across seven states and Washington, DC.
The product is 24-hour brioche dough shaped into flavours such as White Chocolate Tres Leches, Guava & Cheese and Whipped Nutella Crunch. "We don't sell doughnuts," Rivera said. "We sell a doughnut pastry."
Growth built on scarcity, not volume
The brand's visibility has leaned on limited-time drops and collaborations with Poppi, Salt & Straw and Mini Cooper, the kind of attention most chains spend years chasing. Rivera's stated priority is operational discipline without losing the craftsmanship that built the following in the first place.
"This will allow us to actually take what I consider this very special and unique brand," she said of the role, framing it as building the next stage of a category where The Salty wants a distinct identity.
She describes the goal less in terms of store count than team: "What we're doing is really building an amazing team that can drive that cult following," one that does not depend on the founders being in the room. Pizarro and Rodriguez, for their part, are working to formalise the brand identity as the chain scales past its current footprint.
