MOD Pizza, the expanding pioneer of fast-casual pizza, announced it has added two vice presidents to support the company’s rapid expansion across the U.S. Mike Hilgers will join MOD as vice president of design and construction and Darren Medina as vice president of store design; both roles will be focused on creating the unique in-store environment that brings the MOD brand to life. 

“MOD has always been focused on creating a series of unique stores, rather than a chain of restaurants. To stay true to this mission, we have attracted two outstanding individuals to lead our store design and construction teams. Together, they will ensure we execute on our aggressive store opening plans while maintaining a focus on the details that make each MOD store unique,” says Scott Svenson, cofounder and CEO of MOD. “We are thrilled to have Mike and Darren join the MOD team. Together, they possess the technical and creative experience to continue elevating the cool aesthetic for which MOD is known.”

Mike Hilgers joins MOD Pizza as a vice president of design and construction. In this role, Mike will lead the overall design and construction efforts for all new MOD locations. Hilgers was previously the national director of retail real estate for T-Mobile where he led all new store real estate development in the United States and Puerto Rico. During his seven years with T-Mobile, Hilgers held several real estate and construction roles and led his team to complete thousands of new location and remodel projects.

Darren Medina joins MOD Pizza as a vice president of store design, where he will lead the team responsible for designing all new stores. Medina joins MOD Pizza from M3|messenger where he was the director of architecture. Prior to that, he spent 15 years at Starbucks Coffee Company as the director of global store design concepts, where he helped build the processes, systems, tools, and teams that enabled Starbucks to grow from under 200 stores to more than 11,500 stores.