Debra Chrapaty

The CTO Using Tech to Improve Dining Out

As a kid, Debra Chrapaty spent a lot of time waiting tables, slicing meat, and fetching food from the freezer at her father’s Philadelphia restaurant. That experience underpins all of her efforts to help Toast take its technology to the next level. After executive roles at Amazon and Wells Fargo, Chrapaty was named CTO at cloud-based restaurant management software company in 2022, and she promptly began creating tools to help make restaurants more efficient and improve their customer experience. In 2023, Chrapaty and her team launched a mobile app, which allows restaurant managers to see key metrics on the go, and created an improved point of sale system that streamlines restaurant workflows and speeds up service. These efforts have paid off for the company: In 2024, Toast’s revenues grew by 34% to more than $1.6 billion, leading the brand to its first year of profitability. Chrapaty has been named to Fast Company’s Queer 50 list and Forbes’ 2024 CIO Next list of the top 50 leaders in tech.

By Audrey Goodson Kingo