Rhonda Levene began her career in finance, initially setting her sights on becoming a CFO. However, after roles at Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, her trajectory took a different turn, leading her into operations and eventually technology.
Her journey with Ziosk began in 2010 while she was at PepsiCo, where she first met Ziosk’s founder, Jack Baum. They reconnected in 2020, and Levene joined Ziosk as chief operating officer and president, bringing her expertise to the digital hospitality platform during a time of significant change. With the pandemic transforming the dining experience, Ziosk needed to evolve beyond its core pay-at-the-table technology, which it pioneered, to offer a broader suite of solutions.
“[Jack Baum] and I knew we had to move to a SaaS-based technology platform versus a hardware-on-the-table type company. Pay at the table technology is a killer application for us, but we needed to move towards being a suite of solutions,” Levene says. “I come from the CPG world, where one size does not fit all. People want to be met where they are … so we needed to ensure we had solutions for not just operators, but their customers too.”
Under her leadership, Levene introduced a suite of new offerings, including Ziosk Mini, Ziosk Drop and Pay, and the Ziosk PRO Server Tablet. She also established an innovation team dedicated to identifying and solving emerging industry challenges, a step she credits with helping Ziosk stay agile and responsive.
“We needed somebody thinking about what was happening in the restaurant landscape, what consumers felt, what problems were out there to solve,” Levene adds. “The development of a dedicated innovation center has helped us think about solutions like the DigiSite, facilitating better experiences, whether during the curbside ordering or on a waitlist.”
After becoming CEO in 2024, she helped launch DigiSite, one of Ziosk’s latest advancements. It leverages spatial location technology to streamline both on- and off-premises ordering, synchronizing with guests’ apps to make the process as seamless as possible for diners and operators.
“Wouldn’t it be nice for guests to pull into a restaurant and automatically get a text that says, ‘Welcome, we’re bringing your order right out for you!’” Levene says. “DigiSite’s Bluetooth technology creates a frictionless experience for operators and their customers … it doesn’t add more steps for the restaurants to succeed.”
Levene recently spearheaded a strategic partnership with Brinker International, deploying Ziosk tablets across over 1,100 corporate-owned Chili’s locations to simplify the payment process and enhance the guest experience.
“One of the things we’re working on with our Chili’s partners, and others as well, is bringing intelligence to life by taking all this data and information and bringing it back to the guests in a way that is favorable to them,” Levene says. “We want to give them a more personal experience, whether it’s through better operations or a better, more meaningful experience.”
Reflecting on her leadership journey, Levene recalls her early mentors—women who encouraged her to step out of her comfort zone and pursue opportunities she initially felt unprepared for.
“They mentored me and told me to go for the opportunities anyway, and I started to gain confidence in moving out of my comfort zone, eventually learning that there’s a whole other world out there with new possibilities and perspectives,” Levene says. “I started in finance, but now I can officially call myself a technology person. I love leading Ziosk because it’s meaningful, solves pain points, and allows us to evolve with industry needs.”
Levene has made it a priority to support women in technology, focusing on college recruitment and internal advancement to build a diverse leadership pipeline within Ziosk.
“I have brought more women onto our management, engineering, and executive branches. It creates such a great atmosphere of diverse and creative thinking,” Levene says. “A personal goal of mine is to champion women’s advancement. The insights they bring and the lenses they have are so powerful for [Ziosk] and help us solve problems in a new and innovative way.”
Her advice to other women in the industry is to lead from every seat, emphasizing that leadership is more about attitude and initiative than formal authority.
“If you get those leadership muscles built early on because you aren’t waiting for somebody to hand you a team, you’ll be ready for when you do get to the role. Today’s young women are very bold … they just need to step up and raise their hand from the beginning,” Levene adds. “I used to keep my ambitions to myself and thought opportunities would just come to me, but I realized I needed to put a stake in the ground. When you do that, the universe responds accordingly.”
Looking ahead, Levene is focused on expanding Ziosk’s digital solutions, incorporating mobile collaboration, and exploring AI in what she refers to as “Ziosk Intelligence.” Her ultimate vision is to enable restaurants to deliver consistently exceptional dining experiences.
“We want to expand beyond our core demographic of enterprise casual restaurants and reach out to independents as well as solve problems for big fast casual and QSR chains,” Levene says. “Our focus has primarily been on being a nimble platform that enhances experiences, so a lot of work is being completed to ensure our solutions can get to market much faster than our prior technologies. Technology moves fast … but I’m excited for the future.”
