Top appointments have been made at fast growing Mexican food chain Zambrero, with a new chief executive officer and chief marketing officer.

Karim Messih, the general manager at Zambrero, has been appointed CEO.

Under Messih’s guidance as GM, Zambrero notched up its 100th restaurant internationally, which opened in Midlands, WA last week.

As CEO he will further guide Zambrero through aggressive growth in Australia and overseas, whilst overseeing operations, franchise recruitment, legal, marketing, finance and HR.

Messih has broad executive experience in both business and service environments in retail, wholesale, marketing, distribution and finance, with experience at brands such as Video Ezy and Jetset.

Lilla Kelemen takes on the CMO role and brings retail advertising and large scale franchising experience to Zambrero from AMP, Hillross financial services and an agency background.

She joins Zambrero from AMP where she headed up the channel marketing team for AMP Advice channels including AMP Financial Planning, Hillross and AMP’s Financial Planning Academy.

Kelemen was a key player in bringing a retail experience to Financial Planning, transforming the Hillross Financial Planning brand and customer experience and increasing average revenue per firm which saw the brand winning awards for best innovation, brand revitalisation and experience.

In the Zambrero role Kelemen will be responsible for the strategic management of the Mexican fast food brand nationally and internationally with the remit to grow brand awareness, customer traffic and sales.