Meet the billionaire couple behind Panda Express, who run nearly 2,000 restaurants and sell 90 million pounds of orange chicken a year
Andrew and Peggy Cherng are the cofounders and CEOs of Panda Express, the American Chinese restaurant with nearly 2,000 locations worldwide. According to Forbes, the Cherngs have a combined net worth of $3.3 billion.
The Cherngs own and operate virtually every Panda Express location themselves — they don't franchise them out to other owners, making Panda Express a rarity among restaurant chains of its size.
Source: Business Insider
Andrew Cherng was born in Yangzhou, China. His father was a chef, but Andrew didn't enter the restaurant industry at first — he came to the US to study math, eventually earning a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Missouri.
Source: The New York Times
During his undergraduate studies at Baker University in Kansas, Andrew Cherng met his future wife, Peggy. Born in Burma and raised in Hong Kong, Peggy eventually earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.
Source: The New York Times
Andrew Cherng spent his summers waiting tables at Chinese restaurants in New York City. In 1973, he opened his own sit-down restaurant in Pasadena, California, called Panda Inn, with his father as chef.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
The opening of Panda Inn coincided with President Richard Nixon's famous 1972 visit to China, a watershed moment in US-China relations. As Peggy Cherng explained, pandas were viewed as "a symbol of friendship" between the two countries.
Source: Bloomberg
In 1982, Peggy Cherng joined Andrew in the restaurant business, and the two opened the first Panda Express in a mall in Glendale, California.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Panda Express began growing rapidly, expanding to 97 restaurants within 10 years. "In the beginning, we said we wanted to be the McDonald's of the East," Peggy Cherng told Bloomberg Businessweek.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Peggy Cherng used her engineering expertise to streamline the company's operations and logistics. She pioneered the use of technology for tasks like tracking inventory and re-ordering ingredients, a practice other American Chinese restaurants had not yet adopted.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Today, Panda Express sells 90 million pounds of its signature orange chicken each year, as well as 22 million pounds of broccoli, according to The New York Times.
Source: The New York Times
The Cherngs found gold in their family-owned business. Collectively, they are among the 250 richest people in the US, according to Forbes. Individually, Peggy Cherng is the 11th-richest self-made woman in the country.
Two of the Cherngs' three children work for Panda Express' corporate parent, Panda Restaurant Group. Andrea Cherng (pictured below) is chief marketing officer, while Nicole Cherng is manager of catering and special events.
Source: The Daily Meal
The Cherngs frequently cite their philosophy of treating employees well and allowing them to improve and advance their careers. As a symbol of this attitude, they purchased a 12-foot high Robert Indiana 'LOVE' sculpture to display outside their corporate headquarters.
Source: The New York Times
"Love is the verb we emphasize with our Panda family," Peggy Cherng told The Times. "We must respect and care for each other. We must push and stretch each other."
Source: The New York Times
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