Captain D’s LLC has named Wendy Harkness to the newly created position of chief people officer, the company said Monday.
The Nashville, Tenn.-based fast-casual seafood operator said Harkness, who was most recently senior vice president of human resources at Tampa, Fla.-based Advantage Waypoint LLC, would be responsible for human resources strategies, including culture development, administration, internal communications and compliance programs.
“Throughout her impressive career, Wendy has displayed an exceptional talent for driving results through expertly executed human resources strategies, and we are thrilled to have her join the Captain D’s team,” said Phil Greifeld, Captain D’s president and CEO.
“Wendy’s knack for leveraging the best in people will undoubtedly allow us to advance our record-setting success throughout 2015 and beyond,” Greifeld said in a statement.
In addition to her work at Advantage Waypoint, Harkness has served as president of the Chain Restaurant Compensation Association and as a steering committee chair with the Women’s Foodservice Forum.
In 2013, private-equity firm New York-based Centre Partners Management LLC acquired the Captain D’s Seafood brand from Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sun Capital Partners Inc. The company has since worked on upgrading offerings and undertaken some refranchising of company-owned units.
Last year, Captain D’s ranked No. 86 in Nation’s Restaurant News’ Top 100 census, with $478.6 million in U.S. systemwide foodservice sales for the year ended Dec. 2013, an increase from $467.1 million the previous year.
Captain D’s, which was founded in 1969, has 513 restaurants in 26 states and at military bases internationally.
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