Sawsan Abublan transitioned her illustrious career as a pharmacist to living her dream as a successful Franchisor! Going from comforting patients to comfort food using her family recipes, her management and training experience, and strong attention to detail. Her restaurant Shawarma Press opened its first location in Irving, Texas in 2017 and survived COVID without closing its doors. The brand emerged even stronger as the first authentic Shawarma franchise in the US after the pandemic through a strong app and online order presence and a faithful customer base that believes in the Mediterranean diet which ranked as the #1 diet several years in a row. Shawarma Press has grown from 1 to 10 locations in the past 3 years and is expanding in Texas, Georgia, and Kansas.

Mark Lohmann is the CEO of Birdcall, an innovative fast casual restaurant brand with a proprietary and vertically integrated technology platform. Prior to joining Birdcall, he was an Operating Partner at High Bluff Capital Partners and President of REGO Restaurant Group where he was responsible for brand strategy, marketing, integration, and developing international opportunities across the group's portfolio brands. He was also the Chief Financial Officer at Cool Planet Energy Systems, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Qdoba Restaurant Corporation, and a Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group, where he was responsible for developing and implementing strategies for internal and client projects. Mark has a B.Sc in Management Information Systems and Human Resource Management from Kansas State University, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.