Kinsey comes full circle, returns to area to lead Portillo's

Keith Kinsey left his job as president and COO at Denver-based Noodles & Co. last July to become CEO of Oak Brook-based Portillo's.

He returned to his native Illinois to replace founder Dick Portillo, and finds himself in the same town where he worked earlier in his career at McDonald's Corp.

"Coming back is like a culmination of about 30 years of working with restaurants," said Kinsey, 61, of Burr Ridge.

Kinsey was born and raised in Moline, Illinois, where his parents, Cletus and Florence Kinsey, owned a body shop.

"We pretty much grew up in the family business," he said.

Keith was the middle of seven children. While he delivered the local Times Democrat and Moline Dispatch newspapers to his neighbors' homes, he also learned the family business. He tore apart cars and rebuilt engines, including a 1957 GMC truck, which was his first vehicle. Apparently he didn't wire the radio correctly and it caught on fire - while on his first date with his future wife, Joann. They jumped out of the burning vehicle, but she didn't stop seeing him because of that.

They married in 1975 while seniors at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. They later rented a cabin and honeymooned in Minnesota.

Kinsey earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting and became a CPA. The couple headed to the Chicago area for his first job and they rented an apartment in Schaumburg. They later bought a house in Schaumburg, while he worked as an accountant at McDonald's.

He then worked at other companies, moving his family of three children to Florida, California and Denver, where he was president and chief operating officer of Noodles & Co., his last position before accepting the Portillo's top spot.

He now runs the fast food chain with the biggest per-unit sales in the shadow of the corporate campus of his former employer, the biggest fast food company.

"This must be some kind of message here for me," he said.

- Anna Marie Kukec