Pankaj Patra serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Brinker International, Inc., one of the world’s leading casual dining companies and home of Chili’s® Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy®.
Pankaj oversees information technology and data security for Brinker and its brands, which are known leaders of technology and convenience for the casual dining industry. Being a technologist at heart, he and his team focus on the balance between business and tech needs, while implementing solutions to improve the Team Member and Guest experience and drive key results.
Pankaj is a longtime BrinkerHead and has served in multiple information technology leadership roles to help transform Brinker into a leader in restaurant technology. While his proudest moment is taking on his current role leading technology, he will always remember starting his IT days in a small closet developing software.
Pankaj officially joined the Brinker family in 2012, but has a much longer history of about two decades working with the company through his previous consultant role with Cognizant Technology Solutions. His work has always been focused on the restaurant and hospitality industry including time with On the Border as senior manager of enterprise development.
Pankaj and his wife have one son and the rest of his family resides in India, so he leverages technology to call them on the way to work every day. In his spare time, you can find him watching any sport – he loves them all! He has also tried his hand at being coach for his son’s soccer team. Pankaj earned his undergraduate degree from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela and went on to attain his MBA from Southern Methodist University. He is a member of the Dallas chapter of the International Food and Beverage Technology Association.
His favorite Brinker dishes? Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas from Chili’s and Tuscan and Shrimp pasta from Maggiano’s.