Mergers and acquisitions played a role in several recent moves by foodservice technology executives, but not all.
At Wendy's, at the end of this month, senior vice president and chief information officer, or CIO, Robert Whittington leaves three years after joining the company from Sun Microsystems Inc., where he had been technology officer for retail industry operations. Whittington's exit from the 6,625-unit Dublin, Ohio-based chain follows its recent acquisition by Triarc Cos., which restructured management after combining Wendy's with rival 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 do a "broader search" across other 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 Inc. CIO Don Zimmerman.
According to Zimmerman, Sessions now has responsibility for restaurant-level hardware and software across the combined system of 10,344 restaurants worldwide. That arena is considerably larger than the last one in which Sessions performed for Athens, Ga.-based Zaxby's, which, along with enterprise 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, said his group misses Sessions as "one of the most ambitious and intelligently creative IT professionals you will meet." But he added that the company believes it landed a great replacement in Frank Knight, formerly of Rare Hospitality International of Atlanta. Knight was available because of the workforce consolidation that followed Rare's acquisition by Darden Restaurants Inc. of Orlando, Fla.
Knight, who earlier in his career served as director of IT at casual-dining chain operator and franchisor Ruby Tuesday Inc., was senior director of IT at Rare for about seven years under vice president of IT Louis S. Grande Jr., who, too, was left without a post at post-acquisition Rare. 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 combining his two primary interests: building personnel teams that make IT relevant to the business.
If some Rare IT vets managed to land on their feet post acquisition, 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 casual-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, there is little doubt that things were a bit tense at Wendy's at about the time she left, as that company was selling ancillary chains and was in the sights of takeover artists.
What is the current market like for voluntary or forced seekers of high-level IT executive jobs?
Doug Caines, of recruitment and placement specialist CIO Partners of Atlanta, says it's "a buyers' market" favoring employers. However, he notes, the demand for some non-leadership workers, such as database administrators, remains "hot."
Among other things, Caines indicates, employers now are pulling from the negotiating table such things as major relocation packages and may settle only for a candidate with experience deploying a specific brand of software.
Karen Bird has moved into the CIO suite at Whataburger Inc. of Corpus Christi, Texas, after serving as Brinker International Inc. vice president of restaurant information solutions. Her Whataburger predecessor, Scott Parr, is now a principle in Business Technology Partners LLP, a Dallas consultancy.
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.
Filling a long-term vacancy, Culver Franchising System Inc. of Prairie du Sac, Wis., has named as its new vice president of IT Tom Hendricks, who starts Nov. 3. Hendricks joins Culver's — with more than 385 Culver's Frozen Custard restaurants, nearly all franchised — after spending 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 Greater Denver area while serving as OTG's chief intelligence officer.
