Rachel Lorraine departs Yum! Brands for VP, Enterprise Insights and Analytics role at Whataburger

Whataburger has appointed Rachel Lorraine as Vice President, Enterprise Insights & Analytics.

She brings more than 20 years of experience leading analytics, strategy and insights across the restaurant and consumer industries. Lorraine joins from Yum! Brands, where she was serving as Senior Director, Global Analytics Center of Excellence, leading enterprise analytics across customer, marketing, digital, pricing and operations.

Prior to that, she managed analytics, forecasting and insights at the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company and began her career in client service at Nielsen, a specialist in media measurement, analytics and insights.

"I am excited by Rachel’s proven track record of building and scaling global analytics and insights organisations and the value she will bring as we continue to grow the Whataburger brand,” says Janelle Sykes, Chief Financial Officer.

“Analytics is about more than reporting what happened - it’s about recognising patterns, understanding the signals our customers and our restaurants are sending us, and translating those insights into smarter decisions about where we go next.”

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Analytics will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.