M&A activity creates talented labor pool of tech execs
Mergers and acquisitions played a
role in several recent
moves by foodservice
technology executives,
but not all.
At Wendy’s, at the
end of October, senior
vice president and
chief information offi-
cer Robert Whittington
left three years after
On
signing on from Sun Technology
Microsystems Inc.
Whittington’s exit from
the 6,625-unit Dublin,
Ohio-based chain fol-
lowed its recent acqui-
sition by Triarc Cos., which restruc-
tured management after combining
Wendy’s with Arby’s Restaurant
Group of Atlanta to create
Wendy’s/Arby’s Group Inc.
Whittington said he considered
his Wendy’s gig “the best IT job in
foodservice” and that he may need
to search multiple industries to
find a comparably rewarding position. Under the restructuring that
left Whittington jobless, former
Zaxby’s Franchising Inc. director
of information technology Tripp
Sessions was given a similar title
by Wendy’s/Arby’s Group CIO Don
Zimmerman.
According to Zimmerman, Sessions is responsible for restaurant-level hardware and software
across the combined system of
10,344 restaurants worldwide.
That arena is considerably larger
than the one in which Sessions
performed for Athens, Ga.-based
Zaxby’s, which, along with enter-
ALAN J.
LIDDLE
prise IT needs, has approximately 80 company and 370 franchised fast-casual
chicken restaurants to
support.
Blake Bailey, Zaxby’s
vice president of accounting and finance,
had nothing but praise
for Sessions, but said
his company landed a
great replacement in
Frank Knight. He was
available because his
last employer, Rare
Hospitality International Inc. of Atlanta,
experienced workforce consolidation after its late 2007 acquisition
by Darden Restaurants Inc. of
Orlando, Fla.
Knight, who earlier served as
director of IT at Ruby Tuesday
Inc., was senior director of IT at
Rare for about seven years. At
Rare he worked for vice president
of I T Louis S. Grande Jr., who, too,
was left without a post after Rare
was acquired.
Grande recently launched SGA
Ventures IT LLC, a consultancy in
Roswell, Ga., but likely is keeping
his options open should he be offered a job molding IT pros into a
team that supports its enterprise.
While some Rare IT vets managed to land on their feet post-ac-quisition, at least one Wendy’s notable, Kathleen L. Chugh, split
ahead of the Triarc takeover.
Chugh, formerly Wendy’s director of program management, now
is vice president of 75-plus-unit ca-
sual-dining operator Bravo Development Inc. of Columbus, Ohio.
Though Chugh likely was following a natural career arc by moving
into the top post at Bravo, things
probably were a bit tense at
Wendy’s when she left, as that company was selling concepts and was
in the sights of takeover artists.
What’s the IT job market like for
voluntary and forced job seekers?
Doug Caines, of recruitment
and placement specialist CIO
Partners of Atlanta, said it’s “a
buyers’ market” favoring employers. However, he notes, the demand for some nonleadership
workers, such as database administrators, remains “hot.”
Among other things, Caines indicated, employers now are
pulling from the negotiating table
such items as major relocation
packages and may settle only for a
candidate with experience deploying a specific brand of software.
Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based
Sticky Fingers is without a director
of information technology, as Nicole
Mills recently joined supplier Radiant Systems Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga.
Mills’ exit from 22-unit Sticky Fingers leaves Mark Price, manager of
IT systems for the company, to
mind the store on his own.
Patrick J. Piccininno, vice president of IT for IHOP and Applebee’s parent DineEquity Inc. of
Glendale, Calif., recently left to become CIO at Aramark Uniform
Services of Burbank, Calif. And
Ted Stathakis, vice president of I T
for Claim Jumper Restaurants of
Irvine, Calif., left the company
several weeks ago and, reportedly,
is developing a consultancy.
Filling a long-term vacancy,
Culver Franchising System Inc.
of Prairie du Sac, Wis., has
named Tom Hendricks its new
vice president of IT. He joins Culver’s — with more than 385 Culver’s Frozen Custard restaurants, nearly all franchised —
after 15 years with Brown Shoe
Co. of Madison, Wis.
Rob Jakoby, former Red Robin
Gourmet Burgers Inc. CIO and
vice president of IT, has landed at
multiunit airport restaurant operator OTG Management Inc. of
Philadelphia. Jakoby remains in
the Denver area while serving as
OTG’s chief intelligence officer. ■
aliddle@nrn.com
Whataburger names Bird technology chief
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — Whataburger Inc. has appointed Karen Bird to the post of chief information
officer. Bird is a foodservice technology veteran who
most recently served as vice president of restaurant
information solutions at Brinker International Inc.
She succeeds former CIO Scott Parr, who reportedly
has become a consultant in the Dallas area.
“Karen has a strong background in aligning tech-
nology systems and making smart business deci-
sions across multiple brands and concepts,” said
Preston Atkinson, president and chief operating officer of Whataburger, which operates or franchises more than 700
namesake restaurants. “She’ll be a valuable resource and driving
factor in applying new systems in our restaurants to help us deliver
the friendly service and made-to-order food we’re known for.”
Michael Furlow, Brinker International’s senior vice president of
information systems, said he restructured following Bird’s departure
and “expanded an existing leader’s responsibilities to encompass
what was Karen’s area.”
During her two years at Dallas-based Brinker, Bird had responsi-
bility for aligning technology strategy, business processes and pri-
orities across 1,600 restaurants in 24 countries, Whataburger said.
Prior to joining Brinker, she worked as director of retail technology
services for Dunkin’ Brands Inc. Before that she was vice president of
business systems at Advantica Restaurant Group, which at the time was
parent to seven restaurant chains, including the Denny’s family-dining
concept. Bird started in foodservice as a restaurant-level employee
for Burger King and worked her way up to a post as systems manager
before joining Advantica.
NEWS DIGESTS
ORGANIC TO GO SELECTS POS SYSTEM FOR NEW UNITS
SEATTLE — Organic To Go, the cafe, delivery service and
wholesale company based here, is using Maitre’ D by
Posera Software for point-of-sale systems and enterprise reporting and configuration purposes in the company’s new locations.
Organic To Go chief financial officer Michael Gats said
Posera outfits new cafes “with a week’s notice” and that
Maitre’ D “offers enough options and flexibility [to] help
all parts of our business.” Maitre’ D’s enterprise application, e-Global, helps the company with 33 cafes and 120
wholesale sites “access data for each location and make
changes to our menus and produce reports,” he added.
Posera has offices in Seattle and Montreal.
TEXAS ROADHOUSE USING NEW GUEST-MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Texas Roadhouse Inc., the operator and franchisor of 310 casual-dining
restaurants headquartered here, is using the new Aloha Guest Manager software module for
Aloha Point of Sale by Radiant Systems Inc., at 30 company-run units.
“We were excited to see many operational benefits, such as the ability to provide guests
with more accurate wait-time quotes while increasing staff productivity,” Bill Kent, TRI vice
president of information technology, said of his company’s experience running the software
from Alpharetta, Ga.-based Radiant.
Radiant said Guest Manager manages reservations, wait lists and tables, initiates guest
paging and stores notes about a customer’s VIP status or an important date, such as a birthday.
BAJA FRESH TO DIGITIZE, ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS
THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF. — Human resources and financial documents for the 300-plus-unit Baja
Fresh Mexican Grill chain will be digitized and archived with online access by Casdex Inc.
under a five-year agreement with franchisor Baja Fresh Inc., based here.
“With so many locations nationwide, it has become a Herculean task to keep track of
all of our paper documents,” BFI’s chief executive David Kim said of the reason his team
hired Los Angeles-based Casdex. “Implementing Casdex has helped us streamline our document management process without needing to worry about the security of our files so that
we can focus [on] satisfying our customers.”
