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Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: JERRY MURRELL
FOUNDER AND CEO, FIVE GUYS ENTERPRISES, ALEXANDRIA
Virginia Business //September 2, 2025//
Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2025: JERRY MURRELL
FOUNDER AND CEO, FIVE GUYS ENTERPRISES, ALEXANDRIA
Virginia Business //September 2, 2025//
As a young student in Michigan, Murrell’s academic struggles prompted a warning from a nun at his Catholic school: He would end up flipping burgers.
It took a few years, during which he earned an economics degree from the University of Michigan, worked in life insurance, got married twice and had five sons. But eventually the nun’s premonition came true, and Murrell, wife Janie and their sons opened a carryout burger joint in Arlington in 1986. Murrell used funds meant for his sons’ college tuition to open the first burger stand.
By 2001, the family owned five restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area, and the following year they began marketing Five Guys franchise opportunities.
Today, there are more than 1,700 Five Guys locations across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, with 1,500 in development. In July, the London-based Five Guys joint venture closed on a $250 million refinancing deal that’s expected to help it further expand in western Europe.
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