Closing General Session | October 20, 2015 | 2:30pm - 4:00pm
CEO Roundtable
This grand finale session brings together some of the industry’s top CEOs, who will talk about the latest issues of the day and what it takes to succeed in fast casual.
PANELISTS
Scott Drummond | Co-Founder | eatsa
eatsa co-founder, Scott Drummond, is a proven brand builder who has guided the development of some of the world’s most iconic and respected brands in the hospitality, sports and entertainment industries. He is a trusted partner for business leaders looking for guidance on new products and disruptive innovation. With eatsa, Scott has found the “secret sauce” for a new type of fast food that delivers unprecedented technology-driven convenience, healthier ingredients, blazing fast order times and incredible value. As the former CEO and founder of Forty-Forty Agency, Scott’s clients included Auberge and Disney resorts, Piatti, Oakville Grocery, Del Monte, Patagonia, Washington Nationals, MTV Networks, NFL Players, and Gap.
Jim Mizes | President & COO | Blaze Pizza
Jim is the “founder’s best friend” turning brand vision to reality through systems, values based leadership, culture, and a common purpose. Over the past 25 years, Jim has worked with multiple start-ups to rapidly scale. At Blaze Pizza, Jim has led expansion from 2 restaurants to 80+ in just over 2 years. Prior to Blaze Pizza, Jim was president of Freebirds World Burrito and CEO & president of Club One (a health club company). Jim successfully scaled Noah’s Bagels from 8 to 130 restaurants in 3 years and then was part of the executive team that built Jamba Juice from 50 to 450 restaurants in 5 years. Jim led the 59/79/99 Run for the Border campaign at Taco Bell that resulted in 60% same store sales growth in 1990.
Carin Stutz | President | McAlister’s Deli
Carin joined FOCUS Brands in November 2014 as president of McAlister’s Deli, the 340+award winning fast casual restaurant chain known for sandwiches, spuds, soups, salads, and McAlister’s Famous Sweet Tea. Carin previously served as CEO and president of Cosi, President of Global Business Development for Brinker International, executive vice president of operations for Applebee’s International, Inc. and a division vice president for Wendy’s International. She is a Past Chair of the Women’s Foodservice Forum.
MODERATOR
Christopher Sebes | Executive Director, Heartland Commerce | Heartland Payment Systems
Christopher award-winning foodservice career includes international hotel and resort management as well as multi-unit restaurant operations in Europe and the United States. His 20-year background in related technology initiatives includes co-founding Twenty20 Visual Systems and leading Progressive Software as chief executive officer. In 2004, he founded XPIENT—a leader in enterprise restaurant point-of-sale software. XPIENT powers some of the most recognized quick-service and fast-casual restaurant brands. A trained professional chef, Christopher received his bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management from the University of Portsmouth in England.
Sponsored by Heartland Payment Systems
