Key Points
- Chequan Lewis named CEO of Crunch Fitness, effective immediately.
- He succeeds Jim Rowley, who becomes Executive Chairman.
- Lewis joined as president in 2024 from Pizza Hut.
- Crunch is a $1.5B system with 550-plus locations and 3.5M members.
Crunch Fitness has a new chief executive. The gym chain named Chequan Lewis CEO, effective immediately, with longtime leader Jim Rowley shifting to Executive Chairman — a handoff announced at the company’s 2026 Global Franchise Convention in San Antonio, the largest in its history.
Lewis is not a fitness lifer, and that’s the point. A Howard University and Harvard Law graduate, he joined Crunch as president in 2024 from Pizza Hut, where he was chief operating officer and the brand’s first chief equity officer. Under him and Rowley, Crunch has grown into a $1.5 billion systemwide enterprise with more than 550 locations and 3.5 million members in the high-value, low-price gym tier.
The read: the HVLP gym is one of the most durable post-pandemic consumer businesses, and elevating an operator who built his career in equity and operations — rather than personal training — signals where the growth thinking is. It also adds a Black executive to the short list running a billion-dollar consumer chain, the same rarefied tier JAY-Z built his post-music empire around.
Source: Athletech News, PR Newswire
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