2011 Dine America Speakers

David Davoudpour has nearly 28 years of experience in foodservice and hospitality. He has created and operatored a number of successful concepts located throughout the U.S. in the casual-dining, family-dining, and quick-service categories and been recognized with numerous industry awards throughout his career. He is breathing new life into the Shoney's brand through innovation, a focus on simplicity, and community involvement.

 As vice president of franchising and market planning for Dunkin’ Brands, Grant Benson leads the teams responsible for defining the Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins expansion strategies for new and existing markets, as well as responsibility for attracting and signing new franchisees into both systems.Grant has 30 years of experience in the retail and restaurant segment, more than 25 of it with Dunkin' Donuts. Prior to his current role in franchising, Grant spent considerable time in both operations and development in numerous markets throughout the country. Before joining Dunkin' Donuts, Grant managed district-level operations in the gas and convenience-store industry, assisting both company-operated and franchised units.

Brian Boycan joined Auntie Anne’s Inc. in 1992, and has since served in various positions, including as franchise business consultant, director of specialty retail (a program he developed and grew to more than 100 units), and director of real estate and site development. In his present role as director of strategic development, he is responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with key multiunit operators and opening new locations in nontraditional venues such as airports, travel plazas, universities, military bases, and big-box stores.

Bill J. Casey is vice president, food & beverage concept portfolio North America for HMSHost Corporation, the leading provider of food, beverage, and retail concessions in more than 200 travel and entertainment venues in nine countries spanning the globe.  The company is best known for its innovative concession planning that couples national brands with regional favorites in unique settings. Bill is responsible for negotiation and selection of branded concepts into our travel venues.

 Gerry Fernandez is the founder and president of the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA), a nonprofit organization promoting the economic benefits of diversity and inclusion in the foodservice and hospitality industries. Gerry founded MFHA while employed as a National Account Manager, Foodservice Sales with General Mills, Inc. in Minneapolis in 1996.Before joining General Mills, Gerry spent more than 10 years as a senior manager opening and operating fine dining restaurants including The Capital Grille, Hemenway’s Seafood Grill & Oyster Bar and The Old Grist Mill Tavern for RARE Hospitality, Inc., now owned by Darden Restaurants.

 Lonnie has more than 26 years in the franchise industry, working with companies such as Super 8 Motels and Ident-A-Kid. Lonnie was the founder of Computer Doctor, Expetec Technology Services, and InstantFX Web Services, and from 2006 to 2009, was president and chief operations officer of Ident-A-Kid Services of America and eMed-ID Franchising. Today, Lonnie is cofounder and president of Veteran Franchise Centers, a franchise brand that provides free matching services to veterans and military families entering into franchise opportunities. He also serves as the immediate past chairman of the VetFran committee of the International Franchise Association.

 Alex J. Lukondi is the director of corporate marketing for Penn Station East Coast Subs, a Cincinnati-based chain of more than 225 sub sandwich restaurants. He is responsible for all advertising, marketing, and media activities, and is charged with the continued development of the Penn Station brand and increasing brand awareness for the chain. Prior to joining Penn Station in 2004, Alex served as director of marketing for several fast food, fine dining, and casual restaurant groups, most notably Arby’s franchises Restaurant Management Inc. and Chi-Co. Inc. 

Dave Magrogan is the owner of Kildare's Irish Pub, the first of which opened in 2003 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and has since grown to six locations as far south as North Carolina. Dave also owns Doc Magrogan's Oyster House which has three locations, along with the farm-to-table concept Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar. He was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007 and his company, the Dave Magrogan Group, was one of the Top 100 growing companies of Philadelphia in 2006, 2007, and 2010. He was recently awarded SmartCEO's Future 50 Award, and his book, Do It Rhino Style has sold more than 30,000 copies around the world. 

 Chris Morocco is the CEO of Petrus Brands, which owns and operates two national franchise concepts: Shane’s Rib Shack and Planet Smoothie. Prior to assuming the CEO position of Petrus, Morocco was president of Innovative Brands, the holding company for the Planet Smoothie, PJ’s Coffee, and Shane’s Rib Shack brands. Innovative Brands was later integrated into Raving Brands, where Morocco served as chief development officer for the company, overseeing the Emerging Brands Division. Before entering the franchising and food and beverage categories, Morocco was a partner at C&M Enterprises, where he focused on developing, investing in, and operating start-up or early-stage companies for sale to strategic partners. 

Dain Pool has served as the director of strategic growth and business development for Pool’s Restaurant Group LLC (PRG) since 2009. During his tenure, he has been responsible for all aspects of PRG’s growth, including franchising, partnering, traditional and nontraditional growth, corporate growth, multichannel growth plans, future businesses, and consulting for major national brands. Dain recently created and implemented the first franchised mobile food-truck program in the industry. Outside of PRG, Dain is also the president and cofounder of Two Trucks LLC, a gourmet mobile food-truck company.

NPD is the premier source of market information for the food, beverage, and foodservice industries, helping companies make fact-based decisions and grow their profits. NPD has been tracking consumer behavior across many vertical markets for more than 35 years. Warren Solochek has worked in the food industry for more than 25 years. Warren joined NPD’s Foodservice group in 2003. His responsibilities include overseeing relationships with all CREST® clients, both operators and manufacturers. His role at NPD gives him a great deal of insight into today’s foodservice industry issues and trends, and helps him anticipate the issues the industry will face in the future. Warren is also involved in the development of new NPD products and services to address the foodservice industry’s information needs. He is a frequent speaker at key industry events, including COEX, MUFSO, the National Association of Convenience Stores Annual Convention, NACUFS, Hospitality Supply Management Conference, and the CHEERS Beverage Conference.Prior to coming to NPD, Warren spent five years running client service and product development at Concept Shopping, Inc. (CSI). CSI is a consumer promotion company that uses retailer loyalty card data to target individualized promotions.  From 1981–1997, Warren worked at Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), a leader in providing food manufacturers and retailers with industry insights. His last position there was as senior vice president of client service, managing relationships with some of IRI’s largest CPG clients. Warren earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His master’s degree is from the American Graduate School of International Management in Phoenix, Arizona.

Maeve Webster has 15 years of project management, research, and client service experience. Prior to joining Datassential Research, Maeve was an Associate at Technomic, Inc. and, most recently, opened her own market research and consulting firm, Webster Consulting Services. At both Technomic and Webster Consulting, Maeve was responsible for developing, conducting, and presenting small- and large-scale proprietary consulting projects for manufacturers, distributors, and trade associations. Her experience includes a wide variety of custom and syndicated projects. At Datassential, Maeve consults on and manages a broad array of client projects, including market opportunity, brand equity and business opportunity assessments, attitude and usage studies, product and industry trend analysis, market size evaluations, and consumer behavior analysis. Additionally, Maeve is on retainer with some of the largest food manufacturers, aiding in new product concept work and opportunity analysis. Throughout her career, Maeve has spoken at many industry events and large-scale client meetings. Recent speaking engagements include NRN’s Global Culinary Expedition in addition to several national sales meetings. She holds an MBA in marketing from the University of Illinois and an associates degree from Le Cordon Bleu.