Arthur B. Laffer Economist Arthur B. Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an institutional economic research and consulting firm, as well as Laffer Investments, an institutional investment management firm utilizing diverse investment strategies. Dr. Laffer’s economic acumen and influence in triggering a world-wide tax-cutting movement in the 1980s have earned him the distinction in many publications as “The Father of Supply-Side Economics.” One of his earliest successes in shaping public policy was his involvement in Proposition 13, the groundbreaking California initiative that drastically cut property taxes.

Aron Ralston In 2003 Aron Ralston’s story made headlines worldwide.  After being pinned by a half-ton boulder for nearly a week in a remote three-foot-wide slot canyon in southern Utah, Ralston narrowly escaped death by severing his right forearm with a dull pocketknife. After applying a tourniquet, he hiked and rappelled for five hours through Blue John Canyon before searchers in a helicopter miraculously rescued him. Ralston documented the life-altering experience and his remarkable will to survive in his New York Times best-selling book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place. His story has been adapted into a movie by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle. The film, 127 Hours, is being touted as an Oscar contender. Thanks to the movie’s success, the book is back on the Best Seller’s list in 2010.

Joel Kotkin Recognized Authority on Urban Trends Joel Kotkin is Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and the author of THE NEXT HUNDRED MILLION: America in 2050. The book explores how the nation will evolve in the next four decades. His work on the future of cities, towns, and regions focuses on many issues including planning for economic revitalization, the future of the middle class, and the role that resources and peripheral regions play in the rise of regions and countries. Joel writes the weekly “New Geographer” column for Forbes.com where he explores the intersection of demographics and urban issues. His work also appears in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Inc. Magazine, The American, and on Politico.com.

Michael Abrashoff Former Navy Ship Captain and Author Michael Abrashoff  at the age of 36, was selected to become Commander of U.S.S. Benfold, at the time he was the most junior commanding officer in the Pacific Fleet. The challenges were staggering with exceptionally low morale and poor performance results. Few thought that this ship could improve, but Mike only became more resolved. By instilling a sense of urgency and by creating an atmosphere of commitment to excellence, Benfold became the best ship in the Pacific Fleet. GrassRoots leadership is a principle that inspires every individual to share the responsibility of achieving excellence. “It’s your ship,” Mike was known to say. To this day, his former sailors still remind him of it.

Michael Atwell, Vice President of Real Estate, Little Caesars Enterprises, Inc. Michael is vice president of real estate for Little Caesar Enterprises, Inc. He began his career with Little Caesars over twenty-five years ago when the pizza chain was beginning its national expansion. He has been involved with all aspects of Little Caesars development in markets throughout the country.

Gene Baldwin, Partner, CRG Partners Group, LLC has more than 30 years of interim management and advisory experience. He is a corporate leader with a well-established reputation for his ability to assess, develop and implement operational and financial improvement initiatives that enhance the value for stakeholders.

W. Douglas Benn, Executive Vice President & CFO, The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated.  Douglas is a veteran of the restaurant industry having spent more than 20 years in management roles with restaurant companies. 

Bob Bielinski, Managing Director, CIT Group, Inc.  Bob leads the restaurant industry practice within Corporate Finance at CIT Group.  He brings over twenty years of restaurant and retail financial management, investment banking and transaction experience to CIT.

Dylan Bolden, Partner & Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group  Dylan joined the Dallas office of The Boston Consulting Group in 2002. He has deep expertise in consumer insight driven strategy and shareholder value topics with a specific focus on hotels, restaurants, and retail.

Sam Borgese, Executive Chairman of the Board, El Pollo Loco, Inc. Sam joined El Pollo Loco, the nation’s flame-grilled chicken leader, in January of 2011 as executive chairman of the board.  In this role, he is working with the leadership team of the 400+ unit chain to activate revitalization strategies and process improvements that will drive the company’s momentum.

Steve Brake, CFO, Del Taco LLC.  During his tenure at Del Taco was actively involved in the acquisition of Del Taco during 2006 and led the May 2010 recapitalization of the company.  He has also led various strategic initiatives focused on comparable store sales performance, cost control strategies and building a foundation to drive and support company and franchised restaurant growth in new and existing markets. 

Don Breen, Chief Financial Officer, Cheddar’s Casual Café Inc. Don has been CFO since September 2008.  Prior to joining Cheddar’s, Don was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Jamba, Inc., and helped take the company public in 2006 through a unique structure, merging with a special purpose acquisition company. 

Kevin Brown, President & CEO, Lettuce Entertain You Ent., Inc. As president and CEO of Lettuce, Brown’s emphasis is on continuing the trend toward innovation and creation of new concepts that is one of the driving forces of the company. Brown also works with chairman and founder, Richard Melman, as well as other key members of the Lettuce senior management team to continue to grow and develop current concepts within the Lettuce group.

Trey Brown, Senior Managing Director/Commercial Leader, GE Capital, Franchise Finance  Trey has been with Franchise Finance since 2005 and most recently led the structured finance sales team.

John Budd, Partner & Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group  John is BCG's global topic leader for retail pricing, and a member of BCG's worldwide retail leadership team.  He focuses on retail and restaurant clients, with particular emphasis on growth, pricing, value strategy, menu management, and corporate development.

Kevin Burke, Managing Director, Trinity Capital LLC.  Kevin is the managing partner of Trinity Capital, a boutique investment bank specializing in restaurants and the food industry.

Wally Butkus, Partner, Restaurant Research LLC has more than 14 years of experience analyzing restaurant industry and concept trends. Restaurant Research leverages an extensive network of industry players to provide key unit level data that is useful for underwriting due diligence, benchmarking and competitive intelligence. 

Gene Cerrotti, CEO, Praetorian Group a Connecticut based merger and acquisition firm he co-founded. He oversees the marketing of the firm’s services and clients’ franchised businesses to qualified operators.

Damon Chandik, Managing Director, Piper Jaffray.  He is responsible for providing investment banking and mergers and acquisitions advisory services to restaurant companies. His experience includes public equity and debt offerings, private capital raising, mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations.

Nick Cole, Executive Vice President, Wells Fargo Restaurant Finance.  Wells Fargo Restaurant Finance provides capital to owners of multi-unit branded retail businesses in the restaurant sector, including corporate restaurant brands, large franchisees, and landlords for multi-unit restaurant and retail companies.

Craig Daniel, Partner, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP a CPA firm headquartered in Chicago that is ranked as the 16th largest CPA firm in the U.S. Craig is located in the firm's Milwaukee, Wisconsin office where he leads the firm's restaurant and franchise practice.

Paul daSilva, Director-Franchise Markets, RBC Royal Bank In this role, he is responsible for the bank’s portfolio of all banner systems both franchise and non-franchise for the Canadian marketplace.

Bruce Dimytosh, President, Prism Hospitality.  Prism Hospitality specialists in business support, operational management, growth models and strategy development for hospitality-based businesses.

Ron DiNella, CFO, Morton’s Restaurant Group, an international chain of 77 upscale steakhouses, well known for its USDA prime aged beef and genuine hospitality.  Morton’s Restaurant Group also owns Trevi, a white tablecloth Italian restaurant concept.  In his role as senior vice president, Mr. DiNella oversees all financial, compliance, tax and technological aspects for all Morton’s restaurants and Trevi.  In addition, Mr. DiNella oversees the company’s investor relations strategy.

Kevin Dunn, President Dunn Enterprises, a high-impact company that coaches and consults with CEOs to clarify their company vision and achieve the profit and growth goals of their organization. Prior to establishing his own company, Kevin was president of McDonald's Great Lakes Division.

Michael Eagen, Director, Tavistock Group, a private equity firm with international investments in luxury real estate, hotels/resorts, golf courses, sports teams and upscale/fast casual restaurants such as Napa Valley Grille, California Café, ZED451, Timpano's Chophouse, Aquaknox, and fast-growing, 50 unit Freebirds World Burrito. He is former commercial and investment banker who focuses on distressed/non-distressed investing in debt, real estate, and hotels with a specialty in restaurants.

Jim Ellis, CapitalSpring  Jim joined CapitalSpring in 2007 and is currently vice president and a member of the senior leadership team where he is responsible for all market development activities at the firm.  CapitalSpring provides mezzanine debt, preferred equity and creative capital to proven operators in the franchise industry.

John Evans II, President, John Evans II, John T. Evans Company – CIRB John T. Evans is the president of the John T. Evans Company, a full service real estate brokerage firm in Dallas, Texas specializing in restaurant and retail brokerage, site selection, project leasing, land and investment property sales and acquisitions.  John founded the company in 1994, which has grown to become the leading restaurant real estate company in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. 

David Farkas, Columnist, Restaurant Finance Monitor. He has covered the restaurant industry for nearly 25 years as a report and food writer.

David Farwell, Senior Vice President, Managing Director, RBS Citizens Franchise Finance. David has 21 years of commercial banking experience and started the RBS Citizens Franchise Finance group seven years ago. The group focuses on Tier 1 restaurant and retail petroleum relationships.

Ron Feldman, CEO, Franchise America Finance LLC  Ron has been published numerous times in franchise related trade magazines, and is an instructor on SBA financing to the International Business Brokers Association.

Nick Florio, Partner, Citrin Cooperman & Co., LLP., which assists clients in the structure and organization of their companies, plans for business and personal tax matters, and provides strategic advice and counseling to clients that operate multiple brands or units.

Michael Fox, is Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Jamba Juice a holding company and through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Jamba Juice Company, owns and franchises JAMBA JUICE smoothie and juice stores. Jamba Juice has approximately 744 stores in 23 states, of which about 308 are company-owned and 436 are franchised. 

Annette Gomez, President, National Franchise Financial Services, a professional accounting practice with services including, but are not limited to accounting, tax preparation and planning, special reporting and pro forma analysis.

Dale Goss is Vice President Franchise Development, Jamba Juice a holding company and through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Jamba Juice Company, owns and franchises JAMBA JUICE smoothie and juice stores. Jamba Juice has approximately 744 stores in 23 states, of which about 308 are company-owned and 436 are franchised. 

Michael Gottlieb, Partner Americas Leader Restaurant Services, Ernst & Young LLP Michael is the Americas leader of Ernst & Young’s Restaurants practice, Mike began his career in the restaurant industry as a restaurant operator—an invaluable experience that gave him an insider’s perspective on this unique industry.

Richard Gralitzer, CPA, Principal, Meyer Hoffman McCann P.C.  Richard specializes in the restaurant and hospitality industry, and golf industry. His restaurant and golf industry experience relates to internal control procedures, accounting, taxation and consulting. The consulting has been related to the review and implementation of internal control procedures, inventory controls, and issues dealing with financial management.

Aziz Hashim, President/CEO, NRD, Holdings, LLC.  He founded the company in 1996 with one QSR location and has grown the company to over 60 restaurants, including high-profile brands like Popeyes, Domino’s Pizza and Checkers/Rally’s Drive-In Restaurants.

Jerry Herman, President, J.J. Herman & Associates, Inc. – CIRB Jerry is the president of J. J. Herman & Associates, Inc. He has practiced in the commercial real estate industry for more than thirty years and he represents mostly national retailers as tenant representatives.

Allan Hickok, Senior Advisor, The Boston Consulting Group Allan is an experienced Wall Street professional with more than twenty five years of Capital Markets experience as a consumer focused investment banker, equity research analyst specializing in the restaurant and specialty retail food industry segments, senior advisor to a global management consulting firm and chain restaurant CEO.

Carl Howard, President & CEO, Fazoli’s Systems, Inc. has diligently worked to rebrand and revitalize the Fazoli’s “Fast Fresh Italian” concept. Fazoli’s accomplished several key milestones over the last year including posting the best same store sales gains since 2002, best traffic increase since 1999 and the brand is once again growing new company, franchise and non-traditional locations.

Mike Irgang, Senior Director, Financial Risk Management, McDonald’s Corporation. He joined McDonald’s treasury department in 1993 as a financial analyst and his experience includes corporate finance, capital markets, international treasury, and financial risk management.

Bill Johnson, Business Development, United Capital Business Lending, a national franchise lender serving multi-unit operators in the QSR and fast casual dining space. Bill leads the firm’s national business development efforts with a team of highly experience franchise finance professionals regionally based throughout the U.S.  United Capital is a subsidiary of Florida based BankUnited, a publicly traded financial institution (NYSE: BKU) with over $12 billion in assets.

Mark Kelnhofer, President & CEO, Return On Ingredients LLC, has more than 17 years of experience in bottom line-boosting accounting. In 2002, Mark was brought into the Bravo/Brio Restaurant Group to implement a cost control system based principals learned from his past industry experience.  After implementation, BBRG experienced five consecutive years of cost reductions resulting in millions of dollars in savings.

Michael Kelter, Global Investment Research. Michael works on the Goldman Sachs consumer and retail research team as the firm’s lead Restaurants analyst. Prior to joining the firm in February 2008, Michael worked at Reckitt Benckiser, PLC in various brand management positions and Nice-Pak Products, Inc. as director of marketing for the North American Consumer Division.  

Glenn Kindred, Managing Director, GE Capital, Franchise Finance  Glen has more than 20 years of experience in real estate finance, development and management, focusing on franchise real estate since 1998.  As the managing director of asset management for GE Capital, Franchise Finance he is responsible for leasing, selling, acquiring and managing a portfolio of over 2,000 franchise properties nationwide.

Keith Kinsey, COO/CFO, Noodles & Company  Keith is a seasoned restaurant executive with more than 30 years of domestic and international operations, financial and executive experience.

Jeff Kolton, Principal, Franchise Market Ventures With more than 27 years’ experience at the highest levels within the legal, research, marketing and finance sectors, Jeff brings a unique perspective and an invaluable rolodex to every deal he works on.  He has been a partner in one of the leading franchise law firms in the country (Kaufmann Feiner); founded and built the leading franchise research firm in the country (FRANdata Corporation); was elected to the highest position among industry suppliers by his peers (the Supplier Forum).

Marty Kotis III, President & CEO, Kotis Holdings – CIRB Marty is the president of Kotis Properties and the Council of International Restaurant Real Estate Brokers.  He has been a key player at Kotis Properties for approximately 20 years.  As president, he supervises all aspects of the business.  Kotis Properties is a real estate development and services firm specializing in restaurant real estate.

Kerry Kramp, President & CEO, Sizzler USA, Inc. He was as appointed president and chief executive officer of Sizzler USA, Inc. in June 2008 after serving on the Sizzler USA Board. Sizzler has created its own unique niche where it operates in a fast casual restaurant format while maintaining a “full service” casual dining feel. Sizzler USA currently operates 33 company owned restaurants and franchises 167 restaurants domestically. Sizzler owns or franchises close to 300 restaurants worldwide.

Richard Lackey, Chairman, The Lackey Companies – CIRB. Richard is a specialist in every aspect of "restaurant real estate brokerage and consulting" for over 40 years. Founded South Florida's premier restaurant real estate company, The Lackey Companies (TLC), in 1983. TLC has assisted the "who's who" of the restaurant industry - names as diverse as: Benihana, Bice, Cantina Laredo,Carrabba's,  Fado, Ra Sushi, Seasons 52 and Friday's ... to name just a few.

David Landsberg, CFO, Panda Restaurant Group. David leads a team of 70 finance, accounting, strategy and tax professionals, and is responsible for the company’s strategy, planning and budgeting processes.  He also maintains banking and investment banking relationships to ensure that the company is properly financed.  He is also serving as chief development officer on an interim basis as the company builds in excess of 100 new locations per year.

Josh Leonard, Partner, Deloitte & Touche, LLP. Josh is a partner in Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP’s (Deloitte FAS) Lease Advisory practice, since 1996. He is responsible for establishing a 5-city national lease advisory practice in the U.S. where lease audits for tenants and landlords, acquisition due diligence, large scale lease abstracting projects, lease administration process evaluation and training are primary, value-add service lines.

Gary Levy, Partner, Hospitality Industry Practice Dir., J.H. Cohn LLP  Gary has more than 20 years of industry experience, he blends his technical and industry knowledge to help companies enhance their profitability and cash flow. Gary works with franchisees, independent operators, franchisors and catering companies.

Todd Lifson, Partner, Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Co., LLP. Todd specializes in business consulting for complex audit, merger and acquisition, and litigation support engagements. He has significant experience with privately held mid-market and publicly held (SEC) businesses encompassing a broad range of industries.

Brad Lis, Vice President Real Estate and Administrative Services, Carlson, Inc.  Brad has been with Carlson for the past 25 years focusing on real estate portfolio management and operations. In his current role, he leads real estate portfolio management for Carlson Restaurants overseeing real estate needs for company run operations.

Dennis Lombardi, Executive Vice President, Foodservice Strategies, WD Partners has more than 30 years of research and consulting experience. He has directed research and analysis for business planning, new concepts, mergers and acquisitions analysis and planning, due diligence, operations, best practices, benchmarking, financial analysis and financing, market and consumer research, expansion planning, opportunity assessment, and litigation support. 

Robert Lustig, Senior Vice President, Panda Express International. Bob is a restaurant industry veteran who has been instrumental in growing Panda Restaurant Group’s business from just over $100 Million in 1995 to over $1.5 Billion today.

Tom Lutz, Senior Partner & Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group.  Tom began work at BCG in 1992. He is the leader of BCG's Global Restaurant Practice, runs the Private Equity Practice in the Americas, and manages the South office system (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami). He also serves on the Americas Management Team. Tom has worked with a variety of restaurant, retail (big and small box), and consumer goods clients.

David Maloni, President & Chief Commodity Strategist, American Restaurant Association Inc., a food commodity research, forecasting, consulting and contract risk management organization founded in 1996 specifically directly to the US restaurant/hotel industry and supply chain.

Nick Marsh, Venture Partner, FirstMark Capital focuses on financing early stage restaurant concepts such as Chop’t Creative Salad Company and Mendocino Farms. He has also built an operating team which plays an active role in supporting these companies.

Jonathan Maze, Reporter, Restaurant Finance Monitor and Franchise Times, is a seasoned journalist who has spent nearly two decades writing about business. He currently writes about the restaurant industry and finance issues.

Bill McClave, Managing Partner, Birchwood Resultants, LLC.  Birchwood Resultants is the leading real estate modeling company in the in the restaurant industry. With more than 30 years experience, Bill helps clients raise their new store success rates, sales and returns.

John Metz, CEO/Chairman, Meyer Metz Capital Partners, LLC.  John has specialized in acquisitions of under-valued assets and companies for more than 25 years. He has acquired most of the companies and assets out of bankruptcy and distressed situations.

Dennis Monroe, Chair, Monroe Moxness Berg PA.  Dennis a pioneer in the retail and franchise finance area. He has developed a broad network of finance contacts and clients. He assists many businesses, from emerging companies to multi-national firms, by providing creative ideas, identifying unique financing sources, and developing the financial tools necessary for their growth and development.

Erik Morris, Managing Director at Roark Capital Group an Atlanta-based private equity firm that specializes in business and consumer service companies with attractive growth prospects and revenues ranging from $20 million to $1.0 billion. Roark focuses on middle-market investment opportunities through family-owned business transfers, management/corporate buyouts, recapitalizations, going-private transactions, and corporate divestitures.

Tom Mullaney, Partner, Huntley, Mullaney, Spargo & Sullivan, Inc., a financial restructuring firm specializing in real estate lease restructuring, debt restructuring, real estate advisory services and chapter 11 planning and implementation for restaurant and retail chains.

Chris Muller, PhD, Dean, School of Hospitality Administration, Boston University, one of the leading undergraduate programs in hospitality management education in the United States. He is also a leading academic expert in the field of chain restaurant management.  His research has focused on multi-unit restaurant brand management; chain restaurant organization development and growth; and the training of multi-unit managers. 

Tabbassum Mumtaz, President, Apex Restaurant Management, Inc.  Tabbassum has served as president and chief executive officer for Apex Restaurant Management, Inc. since 2004. He is responsible for over 4,000 managers and restaurant team members at the company’s KFC and Taco Bell locations in six different states.

Navin Nagrani, Senior Vice President, Hilco Real Estate, LLC, is primarily responsible for evaluating new real estate opportunities and deal structuring. Prior to joining Hilco's Real Estate group, he was a team leader in Hilco's Appraisal Services group where he managed a group of financial analysts and worked on dozens of debt restructuring transactions on behalf of equity sponsors, investment banks, lenders, and companies covering a vast variety of industries.

Jeffrey Nickell, Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP.  Jeff’s responsibilities include formulating policies and interpretive guidance on accounting standards, and communicating with accounting standard setters, Deloitte & Touche professionals, clients and other parties interested in financial reporting.  His areas of expertise include consolidations and leasing.

Hazem Ouf, CEO, American Blue Ribbon Holdings, LLC.  Hazem has more than 35 years of experience in the foodservice and hospitality industry.  Mr. Ouf's career, which began in London, England with the Rank Organization, covers all segments of the restaurant industry.

Bill Palmer, Senior Vice President/CFO, AppleCreek Management Co., Inc. Bill is the senior vice president/CFO of AppleCreek Management Co., Inc.–an Applebee’s franchisee with 40 restaurants in the Atlanta area.

Andrew Reback, Partner, Cassels Brock & Blackwell.  Andrew specializes in tax law and has extensive experience in cross-border mergers and acquisitions/divestitures, domestic and international tax planning, corporate reorganization, public offerings, financings and estate planning.

Rachael Rothman, Analyst, Susquehanna Int’l Group covers the restaurant, gaming, lodging, and leisure industries for Susquehanna Financial Group. She has more than a decade of direct operational experience in the hospitality industry with 11 years of experience in equity research.

Mike Rotondo, Vice President of Operations, Tropical Smoothie Café is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of hundreds of quick serve restaurants, educating and motivating personnel in the field and nurturing relationships between franchisees and the corporate office.

Brad Saltz, Director Restaurant Services, SS&G.  At SS&G, one of the nation’s fastest growing accounting, consulting and outsourcing firms, Brad leads the restaurant services group, representing  hundreds of restaurants nationwide.

Randy Schultz, Managing Partner, Regions Bank’s Restaurant Banking Group (RRB) which was formed in April 2009.  Randy has extensive banking experience including stints in commercial banking, corporate and investment banking and global treasury management.

Paul Sill, Principal, Forum Analytics, LLC is an innovative leader in the use of customer and market data for strategic decision-making. Forum Analytics has worked with clients such as Little Caesars, Focus Brands, Global Franchising Group, Qdoba, Ace Hardware, Taco Bell, KFC, and numerous other franchise organizations to maximize the value of their data assets and develop customer-driven decision support tools for real estate, marketing, and strategic planning using advanced analytics.

Mark Spurgin, Vice President Supply Chain, OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC one of the world’s largest casual dining companies whose portfolio of casual dining brands includes Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar, and Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine.

Steve Steinhauser, Director and Senior Advisor of the Restaurant Industry Practice, Deloitte & Touche, LLP. Steve has more than 25 years of accounting and financial experience with a strong focus in the restaurant industry which allows him to focus and advise clients on the special issues faced by middle market companies including: profit improvement, growth management, and debt and equity financing.

Reese Stewart, Senior Vice President & Chief Accounting Officer, CKE Restaurants, Inc.  Reese has served as senior vice president and chief accounting officer of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (“CKE”), a privately held company headquartered in Carpinteria, California, since November 2008.  CKE has more than 3,200 restaurants system-wide, operating in 42 states and 23 countries under the Carl’s Jr.® and Hardee’s® brands. Reese is responsible for all aspects of CKE’s accounting, external financial reporting and tax reporting.

Brad Swanson, Managing Director, KeyBanc Capital Markets. Brad has executed M&A, equity and debt transactions for clients such as RARE Hospitality, Buffalo Wild Wings, Wendy’s and McDonald’s.

David Swinghamer, CEO, Shake Shack and Senior Partner, USHG.  Shake Shack is a modern day “roadside” burger stand. Shake Shack is part of the Union Square Hospitality Group which includes restaurants such as Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla, and Terrance 5.

Debbie Tricknor, Controller of Bravo Brio Restaurant Group has more than 12 years with the company.  Debbie assisted the company in 2006 through a private equity acquisition as well as assisting with the launching the company’s initial public offering in 2010 and second offering in 2011.  BBRG owners of Bravo! Cucina Italiana, Brio Tuscan Grille and Bon Vie Bistro.  The Columbus, Ohio based company has fine dining concepts are located in 29 states. 

Craig Weichmann Partner, Meyer Metz Capital Partners, a boutique investment banking firm which focuses on buying restaurant brands with a special emphasis on turnaround situations. Craig has more than 30 years’ experience in the restaurant, lodging and retailing industries.

Larry Weinberg, Partner, Cassels Brock & Blackwell. He heads the firm’s franchise and hospitality law practice group specializing in franchise law and providing all necessary legal services to franchisors, and the restaurant industry.

Steve West, Director, Equity Research – Restaurants, Investment Technology Group. Steve Prior to Investment Technology Group he was a restaurant analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. Before joining Stifel Nicolaus, he was the restaurant and food distribution analyst for A.G. Edwards.  Steve was also a financial analyst for Procter & Gamble, and prior to that served as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy.

Mark Whittle, Chief Development Officer, Huddle House, a 400 unit family dining chain based in Atlanta, GA. His responsibilities include responsibility for all aspects of corporate and franchise growth, including franchise sales, strategic planning, site selection, construction and design for the 47 year old brand. 

Sam Winberg, Partner, Northwest-Atlantic (Canada) Inc. Brokerage. With more than 25 years industry experience, Sam has exclusively represented some of North America’s most recognized retailers and interacted with Canada’s most prominent landlords and developers.

David Wright, President, Kaplan Real Estate – CIRB David Wright has been with Kaplan Real Estate Company, Inc. since 1990.  David is active in all aspects of commercial real estate including:  third party brokerage on sale and lease transaction, tenant representation, site selection, preparing and negotiating purchase and sale agreements, developing and managing build to suit projects and other types of transactions