Michael Barone Senior Political Analyst Michael Barone is the senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Barone has written and reported for many publications including the Economist, Times of London, Daily Telegraph, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and Reader’s Digest. Mr. Barone is the principal co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, published by the National Journal every two years. He is currently a contributor to the Fox News Channel.

Victor Calanog, Phd. Director of Research, Reis, Inc. Victor Calanog is Director of Research at Reis, Inc., responsible for the firm’s market forecasting, valuation, and real estate portfolio analytics services.  A prodigious researcher with broad interests, his papers in real estate economics, local government competition, and urban fiscal policy have been presented in meetings of the American Economic Association, the American Finance Association, the Brookings Institution, and discussed in academic forums sponsored by Harvard Business School, Columbia University, Stanford University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Pat Williams Senior Vice President, NBA’s Orlando Magic Pat Williams is co-founder and current senior vice president of the NBA’s Orlando Magic. Pat became a pro sports general manager at age 24—one of the youngest in history—and he has spent over 48 years as a player and executive in professional baseball and basketball.  He has been a general manager with NBA teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia—including the 1983 World Champion 76ers—and now the Orlando Magic which he co-founded in 1987 and helped lead to the NBA finals in 1995 and 2009.  Pat is the author of more than 60 books on a wide range of subjects.  He and his wife are the parents of 19 children including 14 adopted from foreign countries.

Joel Aaseby, CFO, Heartland Food Corp.
Joel is the chief financial officer of Heartland Food Corp and its related entities. Joel is a seasoned financial professional with more than 35 years of experience in restaurant retail, business development and wholesale distribution. His career in restaurants started at the age of 16 as an hourly employee in a Burger King restaurant owned by Chart House, Inc.

Brian Armstrong, CFO, Rock Bottom Restaurants
Brian is the CFO & senior vice president of corporate performance management at Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc. and is responsible for the company’s shared services. He joined the company in 2005 as vice president of finance at the conclusion of a margin improvement program and later became vice president of corporate performance management and strategy.

Gene Baldwin, Partner, CRG Partners Group, LLC
Gene has more than 32 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. He has successfully served as CEO, CFO and president, and acted as an advisor for numerous distressed companies in many industries.

John Berg, Partner, Monroe Moxness Berg, P.A.
A firm shareholder, John assists buyers and sellers in effectively structuring and documenting transactions involving business combinations, purchases and sales, and financing.  He provides counsel for businesses and individuals in the following areas: mergers and acquisitions, commercial law, finance, corporate law and personal income tax.

Robert Bielinski, Managing Director, CIT Group, Inc.
Robert is a managing director who leads the restaurant industry practice within corporate finance at CIT group. He brings twenty years of restaurant and retail financial management, investment banking and transaction experience to CIT.

Trey Brown, Senior Managing Director and Commercial Lender, GE Capital, Franchise Finance
Trey is senior managing director and commercial leader of GE Capital, Franchise Finance.  Trey has been with Franchise Finance since 2005 and most recently led the structured finance sales team. Prior to that he was general manager of GE's Global Electronics Solutions (GES) business where he successfully led the global Comdisco integration and stabilizing of GES as a newly formed business focused on meeting the asset management needs of the semi-conductor industry.

Alex Burke, Managing Director, Wells Fargo Restaurant Finance
Alex joined Wells Fargo Restaurant Finance in June 2006 as managing director in charge of loan production and customer development. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Alex was employed with Bank of America and its predecessor institutions for ten years, most recently as a principal in Bank of America’s Restaurant Finance Group.

Kevin Burke, Managing Partner, Trinity Capital LLC
Kevin is the managing partner of Trinity Capital, a boutique investment bank specializing in restaurants and the food industry. Since its founding in 2000, Trinity Capital has completed over $10 billion in mergers and acquisitions, financial restructurings and financing transactions.

Rick Burke, President, Lease Administration Solutions, LLC
Rick is president of Lease Administration Solutions, LLC., a company that offers a wide range of lease administration solutions such as lease administration, lease auditing, lease abstracting, in house training for both lease administration and lease auditing and lease administration systems implementation.

Mark Challis, President, Directed Equity, Inc.
Directed Equity, Inc. founder Mark began the company in 2004. Directed Equity is a leading commercial and franchise finance company, provides clients with financing, leasing, and Self-Directed 401k products and services.

Nick Cole, Executive Vice President, Wells Fargo Restaurant Finance
Nick is the managing director of Wells Fargo Restaurant Finance based in Carlsbad, Calif. 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.

Richard Dalton, Executive Vice President, Bank Bay Restaurant Group
Twenty-six years in the restaurant business, all with Back Bay Restaurant Group.  He has also served as president and CEO of the Westwood Group, Inc., an affiliated company.  Richard has served in management positions for over thirty-three years, and is currently a member of the company’s executive committee.

Jerry Darnell, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development, BeneTrends, Inc.
Jerry joined BeneTrends in March 2009. Due to the significant changes he implemented to their systems, the company had the largest increase in sales in the history of the company. He was recruited by legendary franchise icon, Tony Martino of Maaco, at a time when franchise growth was deteriorating and becoming dysfunctional. Jerry was primarily responsible, and credited as being the catalyst of turning sales and re-sales around. 

Scott Defife, Executive Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs, National Restaurant Association
Scott is the executive vice president, policy & government affairs for the National Restaurant Association. In this key leadership role, DeFife oversees government affairs, public policy and advocacy communications for an association representing the nation’s second largest private sector employer, an industry with 13 million jobs, nearly one million restaurant and foodservice locations, and annual sales of more than $500 billion.

Jim Ellis, Vice President, CapitalSpring, LLC
Jim is vice president of CapitalSpring, a private equity firm that provides preferred equity to experienced franchisees.

David Farwell, Managing Director, RBS Citzens, N.A.
David is managing director of RBS Citzens which provides commercial banking services.

Joe Ferreira, Co-Founder & Partner, Goode Partners, LLC
Joe is co-founder and partner of Goode Partners. Goode Partners offers entrepreneurs and management teams a compelling strategic alternative to other financing and business development considerations. Simply said, they provide companies with the necessary financial and operating resources to strategically and efficiently grow their business.

Ronald Feldman, CEO, Siegel Financial Group
Ronald has been with Siegel since 2003. Prior to Ron's affiliation with Siegel, he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Response USA, a publicly traded Alarm Systems Company.  Ron was instrumental in both the public offering and ultimate sale of the Alarm Division. Ron also owned and operated a Goddard School Franchise with his wife from 1998 to 2007.

John Geenen, First Vice President – Investments, UBS Financial Services
John is a first vice president – investments with UBS Financial Services, Inc. UBS is one of the world's largest asset manager and is present in all major financial centers worldwide with offices in more than 50 countries. John has more than 23 years experience in the financial services industry.

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.

Jane Grote Abell, CEO, Donatos Pizza
Jane is president and chief operating officer of Donatos Pizza. She first began working for the company at age 11, when she helped her father and founder of Donatos Pizza, Jim Grote, work at the first of the pizza chain’s locations. McDonald’s purchased Donato’s in 1999, and Abell became senior vice president of store development and chief people officer. There she advanced the decision to buy back the company from McDonald’s, and continue to grow the franchise.

Rod Guinn, Strategic Operating Partner, FocalPoint Partners LLC
As strategic operating partner with Focal Point Partners, Rod serves as an advisor to restaurant operators, investors, and lenders, focusing on developing capital structures which support and complement operating plans. He also advises restaurant service providers interested in expanding or deepening their presence and value for the industry.

Peter Hanson, CFO, Five Guys Enterprises
Peter has been chief financial officer since August 2007. He has worked in several industries, including energy, internet marketing research, and homebuilding. From November 2003 to August 2007, he was the corporate controller for Comstock Homebuilding in Reston, Virginia, which went public on December 14, 2004. Peter has previously worked with two family owned businesses to build their accounting department infrastructure and to implement internal controls as well as internal and external reporting.

Jack Hartung, CFO, Chipotle Mexican Grill
Jack joined Chipotle as chief financial officer in 2002, when Chipotle was a privately-held company with fewer than 200 restaurants. Chipotle became a public company with its highly successful initial public offering in 2006, and now has more than 1,000 restaurants, all company owned, and a market capitalization in excess of $4.5 billion. In his current position, Jack oversees all aspects of Chipotle’s finance department, including financial and strategic planning, financial reporting, investor relations, tax and business strategy. Jack also oversees IT and safety and security.

Dan Holland, Managing Director, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Chris Hurn, CEO, Mercantile Capital Corporation
Chris is currently president, CEO, and co-founder of Mercantile Capital Corporation (MCC) where his firm specializes in providing the highest cash-on-cash return financing for business owners and entrepreneurs buying commercial property. Chris is also the CEO, co-founder and chairman of Kennedy’s All-American Barber Club™. Kennedy’s is a franchised concept that offers the finest haircuts for men, the lost art of straight-razor shaves, and a modern selection of grooming products. It is a membership-driven, mass-affluent targeted, recession-resisted business more about lifestyle experience than just haircuts.

Scott Husaby, Partner, Monroe Moxness Berg, P.A.
A shareholder at Monroe Moxness Berg PA, Scott represents closely held businesses and individuals in the areas of estate planning and wealth preservation including: wills and trusts, retirement planning, asset protection planning, business succession, employee stock ownership plans and employee incentive programs.

Glenn Inanaga, Director, Legal Department, Panda Restaurant Group, Inc.
Glenn is a director in the legal department of Panda Restaurant Group, Inc., (the parent company of the Panda Express, Panda Inn, and Hibachi-San restaurant brands with approximately 1300 store locations nationwide). Glenn’s law practice includes both general corporate and real estate legal matters, as well as leading the Due Diligence/ Paralegal sub-group within the legal department.

David Jacquin, Managing Director, North Point Advisors, LLC
David founded North Point Advisors in 2004 with the mission to create value for its clients by providing exceptional mergers and acquisitions advice and services, thereby earning their lifetime loyalty. David has completed over 100 transactions in the restaurant industry and has worked with a number of leaders in the industry including Brinker, Cheesecake Factory, Church’s Chicken, Corner Bakery Café, Jamba Juice, Jimmy John’s, Landry’s Restaurants, Lone Star Steakhouse, Outback Steakhouse, Papa Murphy’s, PF Chang’s, Pinkberry, Sbarro Pizza, TGI Friday’s and Wendy’s.

David Joaquin, CFO, Lyons Group
David Joaquin, finance chief at Lyons Group, a Boston-based company that oversees 25 restaurants.

Lou Katz, Attorney, Ruberto, Israel & Weiner, P.C.
Lou is a Shareholder in the Boston law firm of Ruberto, Israel & Weiner PC. His practice is focused on corporate and partnership law, commercial transactions and commercial real estate transactions and includes mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance transactions, business disputes and succession planning for closely held companies, including many restaurant and hospitality businesses.

Paul Kinney, Executive Director, National Retail Tenants Association
Paul is currently the executive director of the National Retail Tenants Association (NRTA) responsible for the day-to-day management of the association. He is a co-founder of the NRTA and has served as president, and co-chair of the 2004/05 Conference Curriculum Committee. Prior to his role of executive director he was employed by Friendly Ice Cream Corporation as director of real estate services with more than twenty years experience in real estate lease administration.

Laurence Kretchmer, Managing Partner, Bold Food, LLC
Behind the scenes at chef Bobby Flay’s restaurants is the reserved yet forceful presence of Laurence Kretchmer, co-owner and managing partner of Bold Food. The two first collaborated when they swung open the doors of Mesa Grill in New York in 1991. Since then, the creative pair have opened ten other restaurants including Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Bar Americain at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT; Bobby Flay Steak at Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, Mesa Grill at The Cove, Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas; and their latest venture, Bobby’s Burger Palace (BBP), with five locations.

Ann Marie Lagrotteria, Senior Vice President, Back Bay Restaurant Group
Twenty-two years in the restaurant business.  Ann Marie has spent all of those at Back Bay Restaurant Group, Inc.  Beginning her career as a restaurant manager, she has served many positions within the company.  Presently, as senior vice president, she creates, oversees and maintains all training and continual development programs, handles execution and roll out for new restaurants, and serves as a member of the executive committee.

Gary Lentz, Senior Account Executive, Vend Lease Company
Gary joined the Vend Lease team in 2006 bringing eighteen years experience in the vending equipment distribution industry. He most recently served at VP-director of vending sales for a major distributor in the coin-op industry. At Vend Lease he is responsible for sales and marketing efforts toward the development of new supplier relationships.

Gary Levy, Partner, Hospitality Industry Practice Director, J.H. Cohn, LLP
Gary is partner-in-charge of the firm’s hospitality services group. He works with franchisees, independent operators, franchisors and catering companies. Gary’s technical and advisory strengths include: helping hospitality companies take advantage of industry trends; restructuring companies to improve cash flow and tax savings; negotiating with the IRS and Department of Labor; implementing effective inventory controls and procedures; assisting companies in strategic expansion; performing due diligence to minimize risks on new ventures; and reducing internal fraud.

Todd Lifson, Partner, Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Co. LLP
Todd is a partner in the accounting and auditing division and a member of our executive committee. He specializes in business consulting for complex audit, merger and acquisition, and litigation support engagements. Todd has significant experience with privately held mid-market and publicly held (SEC) businesses encompassing a broad range of industries. His expertise includes assisting business owners and senior management teams with the development and implementation of their business plans and effecting change to maximize operations.

Todd Lindsey, CFO, Checkers Drive-In Restaurants
Todd was appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc. in January of 2008. He is responsible for oversight of all of the company’s financial and treasury systems, reporting and controls, as well as strategic planning and forecasting. Todd is a seasoned financial executive with more than twenty years of experience in the restaurant, retail and hospitality industries.

Tim Loyd, Managing Director, Wells Fargo Restaurant Finance
Tim joined Wells Fargo Restaurant Finance in August 2008 as managing director and senior relationship manager focusing on loan production and portfolio management. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Tim worked for Bank of America and predecessor banks for 30 years, including the most recent 7 years in restaurant finance.  Tim has a varied lending and credit background including experience in asset based lending, general middle market banking, credit supervision and problem credit resolution. 

Mike McCallum, Chief Strategy Officer, National Restaurant Association
Mike McCallum is the chief strategy officer for the National Restaurant Association.  He is responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of the strategic direction for the National Restaurant Association and the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. In this role he works with the two respective boards of the organizations, the state restaurant associations, and the senior staffs of both organizations.  Additionally, he oversees the activities of the state relations and the strategy departments.

Dennis Monroe, Chair, Monroe Moxness Berg, P.A.
Dennis is chair of the Minneapolis law firm of Monroe Moxness Berg, P.A., a firm he co-founded 24 years ago. A pioneer in the retail and franchise finance area, Dennis 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.

Ed Moran, Certified Business Appraiser and Author, BVR’s Guide to Restaurant Valuation
Ed’s areas of specialty are valuations, mergers and purchases for franchise and restaurant clients throughout the United States. Ed has been advising small businesses and franchises on accounting and valuation issues for more than 35 years. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal and is published in the Valuation Examiner, CPA Expert, Valuation Strategies and Franchise News, among others. 

Erik Morris, Managing Director, Roark Capital Group
Erik is a managing director at Roark Capital Group. Roark Capital Group is 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.

Sam Nazarian, CEO, SBE Restaurant Group
Raised in Los Angeles, Sam brings entrepreneurial instinct, immeasurable drive and considerable business experience to his role as founder and CEO of SBE. Nazarian balances and directs SBE's operating groups - which include its hotel, restaurant, nightlife, and real estate divisions; as well as Bolthouse Productions and Element Films - in all phases of acquisition, development and management.

Nick Peters, President, Prometheus Partners
Nick has focused on investing in and managing nationally-franchised restaurant businesses for the last 20 years. He has extensive multi-unit franchise restaurant experience, as the current CEO of more than 250 restaurants in the Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and IHOP brands; and as the former chairman and CEO of Southern California Food Services Holdings Corporation, a 64-unit Wendy’s franchisee.

Louie Psallidas, CFO, Uno Restaurants Corporation
Louie joined Uno Chicago Grill in April of 2008. Prior to joining Uno, he worked as senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Papa Gino’s and D'Angelo restaurant brands since 2000. Prior to 2000 he worked as chief financial officer of John Harvard’s Brew House, also holding the role of president for his final two years with the company.

Diana Purcel, Senior Vice President/CFO, Famous Dave’s of America
Diana is chief financial officer and corporate secretary of Famous Dave’s of America, a publicly held company specializing in great barbecue available at approximately 180 restaurants in 36 states across the nation.  In that capacity she is responsible for all of the accounting and finance functions, investor relations, internal audit, legal, purchasing, and information systems.

Andrew Salmon, President, Momofuku Holdings, LLC

Brad Saltz, Managing Director, SS&G Financial Services, Inc.
Brad is a leading authority in the restaurant industry.  At SS&G, one of the nation’s fastest growing accounting, consulting and outsourcing firms, he leads the Restaurant Services Group, representing hundreds of restaurants nationwide. Brad and his staff have extensive industry consulting experience and specialize in assisting companies not only with their audit and tax needs, but with their growth strategies, planning, return on investment, internal controls and manager bonus plans.  The firm has gained national recognition for its award-winning Restaurant CFO Bootcamp and its Annual Restaurant Benchmarking Survey.

Vikki Scholten-Reeves, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group
Vikki is Director of real estate for Einstein Noah Restaurant Group since 2005.  She developed the lease administration department for the company’s approximately 430 leases, transitioned from a third-party lease administration provider.  Her prior experience includes managing the lease administration department for Knowledge Learning Corporation and Certified Public Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Russell N. Stein, Esq., Chair, Corporate & Business Law Group, Ruberto, Israel & Weiner, P.C.
Russell is chair of the firm’s corporate and business law group. He concentrates his practice in corporate, real estate, employment and technology. Mr. Stein represents businesses in a variety of corporate, employment and real estate matters, including business formation, financings and mergers and acquisitions. He also frequently assists family businesses on succession and estate planning and implementation. His practice includes a substantial number of retail, food and hospitality clients including several growing restaurant chains.

Jerry Thissen, President/Founder, National Franchise Sales
Jerry, president and founder of National Franchise Sales, began his professional career with Northwest Airlines. From the position of staff accountant Jerry went on to become manager of project accounting, director of tariffs, manager of cargo sales, director of passenger and cargo sales and eventually executive vice president of sales. Jerry's goal was always to develop and manage his own business, so in 1976 Jerry left Northwest Airlines to acquire several fast food franchises. In doing so, he became acquainted with the intricacies of buying and selling franchises.

More information coming soon!