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 officer Robert Whittington left three years after signing on from Sun Microsystems Inc. Whittington’s exit from the 6,625-unit Dublin, Ohio-based chain followed its recent acquisition by Triarc Cos., which restructured 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 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, 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 IT 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-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, 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 IT 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.
