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Dunkin’ Brands taps Yanofsky as Int’l. prexyDunkin’ Brands taps Yanofsky as Int’l. prexy

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

May 11, 2011

1 Min Read
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Bret Thorn

Dunkin’ Brands Inc. appointed former Panera Bread president Neal Yanofsky to the newly created position of president of its international division beginning May 2. He will report directly to Dunkin’ Brands chief executive and Dunkin’ Donuts president Nigel Travis.

In his new role, Yanofsky will be responsible for building both the Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins brands outside of the United States.

The two brands already account for some 16,000 restaurants, almost all franchised, in 57 countries. The company is based in Canton, Mass.

Earlier this month, Dunkin’ Brands filed plans with federal regulators to raise up to $400 million in an initial public offering. At the time the company did not detail how many shares it would offer or a per-share price.

Yanofsky, most recently, served as chief executive of Generation Mobile, a wireless product retailer. He was president of the fast-casual Panera chain for five years before that.

He also was vice president of Fidelity Ventures, where he started and ran a group that invested in early stage growth companies, and before that he was chief marketing officer of the Au Bon Pain bakery-café chain.

“Neal is a strategic thinker with a demonstrated ability to build successful companies,” Travis said. “His vast knowledge of operations, finance and marketing make him ideally suited to lead our international operations, drive profitable growth and enhance support for our franchisees around the world. We are delighted to welcome him to Dunkin' Brands.”

“I look forward to working with our franchisees and licensees and the international management team to take advantage of our significant growth opportunities in both existing and new markets,” Yanofsky said.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].

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Baskin-Robbins

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:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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