The MAHA movement is going corporate as Steak ’n Shake offers a well-done wellness pivot and puts “Make America Healthy Again” movement on the menu.
The burger chain announced that Michael Boes will serve as its first “Chief MAHA Officer,” a new executive post focused on “nutritional integrity, ingredient transparency, and the healthiness” of its products, according to a Tuesday post from the company’s X account.
“Steak n Shake believes that burgers, fries, and shakes should be made from real ingredients families know and love,” the chain wrote in the post.
The appointment makes Steak ’n Shake one of the most explicit fast-food adopters of the MAHA brand, a movement associated with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his push to remake parts of the American diet.
“Customers should never have to choose between taste and health,” Boes said in the company’s X post. “When restaurants commit to both, they serve better food and they build lasting trust.”
Who is Boes?
This isn’t Boes’ first rodeo with the MAHA movement, or RFK Jr. for that matter—he used to work with him. He served within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He was one of the developers behind the newly released Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which inverted the food pyramid and put meat at the top of the upside down triangle, and said it was “the most fulfilling moment of my career.”
Before joining HHS in April 2025, he held senior business roles at Hallmark Health Care Solutions, Job.com, Gifted Healthcare, SnapNurse, AMN Healthcare, Conduent, and Cardinal Health, according to his LinkedIn. His profile says he led Public Health sales operations at Conduent and worked with health systems and departments, and holds an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
Biglari Holdings courts the MAHA movement
The MAHA hire is the latest chapter in a long and turbulent saga for Biglari Holdings and its CEO Sardar Biglari, who took control of Steak ‘n Shake in 2008 when the chain was losing $100,000 a day. Biglari turned it into a cash cow generating more than $250 million in total operational earnings through 2016. It was back in the red by 2018, and by 2024 the company had closed 200 locations and overhauled its model around self-service kiosks.
Now, Biglari is betting that cultural realignment will save the franchise. In its
2025 annual letter, Biglari reported 10.2% same-store sales growth—its best annual same-store performance since current management took control—and credited product-quality improvements as a key driver. In the third quarter of 2025, Steak ‘n Shake led all restaurant chains with 15% same-store sales growth, which the brand attributed in part to Bitcoin payments.
Last week, Bitcoin Magazine reported the chain was teasing “exciting news” for the Bitcoin Conference, quoting the company as saying “our same-store sales have risen dramatically ever since we launched Bitcoin payments.” The chain then announced a “Bitcoin Milkshake” and even offered hourly employees a Bitcoin bonus equal to 21 cents an hour.
“Appointing a Chief MAHA Officer is a sign of our continued commitment to make Steak n Shake the great differentiator in fast food. Michael is ideally suited for such a role, with his deep understanding of nutrition and his experience at the highest level of health policymaking,” said Sardar Biglari, Chairman and CEO of Biglari Holdings, the owner of Steak n Shake, in a statement to Fortune. “To put it simply, good-tasting food should also be good for you.”
Steak ’n Shake already is involved in key spaces where followers of MAHA may be interested in: it sells jars of beef tallow and uses full-fat dairy cues and “real food” messaging. It has strong anti-seed-oil stances and a stronger alignment with the MAHA movement. And even switched all of its fries and onion rings to 100% beef tallow—even cheekily calling them “RFK’d” in social media posts.
In addition to switching fries to beef tallow, promoting cane-sugar Coca-Cola in glass bottles, and removing microwaves from restaurants, it said it wants to restore the “original spirit of American fast food.”
