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Inspire Brands names Yasir Anwar chief technology officerInspire Brands names Yasir Anwar chief technology officer

The former CTO of Williams-Sonoma and Macy’s reports directly to restaurant company CEO Paul Brown

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

May 7, 2024

1 Min Read
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Inspire Brands named Yasir Anwar its chief technology officer Tuesday.

The Atlanta-based restaurant holding company said Anwar has experience in building “in-house and agile technology teams.” Most recently he was chief technology and digital officer of Williams-Sonoma, and before that he was CTO of Macy’s. He also has held tech leadership roles at Walmart and Wells Fargo.

"Inspire is committed to building extensible shared technology capabilities for our iconic brands. It helps us run faster, better meet the needs of guests and franchisees, and build data driven insights into our business," Inspire Brands co-founder and CEO Paul Brown said in a release announcing Anwar’s appointment. "Yasir's extensive experience in leading transformative change and his collaborative approach with brands will accelerate our journey toward this vision." 

Yasir-Anwar-Headshot_4.29.24-scaled.jpegAnwar, left, will oversee teams including product engineering, data engineering, technology operations, architecture, cybersecurity, enterprise applications, and infrastructure and development operations.  

"I am thrilled to join Inspire Brands at such an exciting time for the organization and add to the incredible work the technology teams have already accomplished,” Anwar said in the release. “Driving the technology strategy for six iconic brands is a dynamic opportunity that I am excited to tackle."

Related:Inspire Brands eyes further overseas expansion as it opens its 10,000th international restaurant

Anwar, who officially joined Inspire on May 6, reports directly to Brown and also serves on the company’s management committee.

Inspire Brands is the parent company of Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic Drive-In, Jimmy John’s, Dunkin’, and Baskin Robbins.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

 

 

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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/
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Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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