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Golden Krust names Jacqueline Hawthorne-Robinson CEOGolden Krust names Jacqueline Hawthorne-Robinson CEO

The Jamaican beef patty chain has also promoted Glenn Fancie to CFO

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

October 7, 2024

2 Min Read
golden krust exterior
The exterior of a Golden Krust restaurantCourtesy of Golden Krust

Golden Krust, a fast-casual Jamaican restaurant based in New York City, has named Jacqueline Hawthorne-Robinson its chairman and chief executive officer and Glenn Fancie its chief financial officer.

Hawthorne-Robinson, a sibling of founder Lowell F. Hawthorne’s, has been involved with the chain since it was founded in 1989. It now operates more than 110 locations in eight states and sells retail products, including its signature beef patties, in some 22,000 stores. The new CEO got her start in her father’s bakery, Hawthorne & Sons Bakery in Jamaica, which inspired the creation of Golden Krust. She has been involved in expanding the business, managing franchises, and driving growth. She was particularly integral, starting in 2005, in growing Golden Krust in the Atlanta area to 18 locations, according to the company.

She also was involved in other positions, including managing banking, real estate, human resources, and legal affairs, and also owned her own manufacturing and distribution company.

In her new role, Hawthorne-Robinson will concentrate on introducing new menu items while staying true to Golden Krust’s Caribbean roots. She also plans to expand the company’s digital presence and upgrading restaurants’ ambience to reflect a more island-inspired vibe, the company said.

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Fancie joined Golden Krust in March of 2022 as its comptroller and has worked to establish budget controls and streamline processes for the chain. In addition to typical CFO duties, Fancie is working to upgrade Golden Krust’s plant facilities to increase production, as well as expand the company’s customer base.

Prior to joining Golden Krust, Fancie was comptroller for AERCO International, a water heater manufacturer, where he and his team oversaw manufacturing, price variances, and payroll. Prior to that, he was CFO and chief operating officer of manufacturing company ALU, where he was responsible for revamping the company’s inventory system. Before that he was vice president of finance for Transamerica insurance company.

He is a certified public accountant and holds an MBA from Pace University in New York City.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
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