Josh Kern is the Chief Executive Officer for SPB Hospitality, a leading operator and franchisor of full-service dining restaurants, spanning a national footprint of hundreds of restaurants in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Kern is a seasoned restaurant executive with extensive marketing experience. He has served in various leadership roles with SPB Hospitality and other notable restaurant brands including Chief Marketing Officer for Cerca Trova Restaurant Concepts, Chief Marketing Officer for Smashburger and Vice President of Marketing for Quiznos.

Taras Malyshev is the Head of New Business Innovation at Pizza Hut. Previously, he was the Strategy Finance Manager North America at Mondelēz International, where he also served as the Plant Finance Lead overseeing financial operations and implementing lean 6 sigma and agile concepts. Prior to that, Taras worked as a Finance Manager Sales and Head of Financial Control (Plant Controller) at Mondelēz, where they focused on waste management strategies and developed tools and processes for waste analysis.

Deborah serves as the global head of restaurant service providers at AWS, where she advises 3rd Party Delivery companies, Restaurant Technology Providers, and Virtual Dining Concepts on deploying the cloud to promote digital innovation. Prior to AWS, Deborah managed partnerships on Amazon’s Fulfillment and Distribution team, and served as a founding member of Uber Eats’ sales organization, where she scaled Uber Eats to over 200,000 restaurants and grew virtual dining concepts by 700%.

Before joining Taco John’s as President & CEO in February 2024, Heather Neary served as the Brand President at KBP Brands, a large Franchisee of KFC, Taco Bell, and Arby’s. She began her restaurant career with Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, where she held multiple leadership roles until she became the Brand President. Neary is an active member of the International Franchise Association, the Board of Directors for the National Restaurant Association, and the Women’s Foodservice Forum. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Essential Property Realty Trust (NYSE: EPRT).

Aaron Nilsson is the CIO of Jets Pizza. Since 2019 he has used his skill set to build Jet’s Pizza’s digital experiences for customers and in-store operations. Under his leadership Jets saw more than a 400% increase in digital sales in his first 5 years. He launched some of the most innovative digital products in the category. Nilsson was previously associated with brands such as Carhartt, Domino’s, and General Motors.

Zerrick Pearson is the CIO for Five Guys Enterprises, L.L.C., a company that operates more than 1420 franchised or company-operated restaurants domestically and internationally. Zerrick is responsible for developing and implementing information technology initiatives across the Enterprise. Having been born into the restaurant industry through family owned restaurants, Zerrick has been involved in restaurant operations for almost 25 years.

During his 30+ year career at The Coca-Cola Company, John Sattem rose from an entry-level sales position to the role of global Senior Vice President with over $1 Billion in annual sales. Today, John provides consulting and guidance to drive profits and confidence while negotiating beverage contracts on behalf of leading restaurant brands, and creating beneficial partnerships.

Charlie is the CFO of Smashburger. Prior to joining Smashburger, Charlie worked as a financial and investment analyst for different companies and played a crucial role in the international go-to-market strategies of World Wrestling Entertainment and the mergers and acquisitions valuation of Mooreland Partners.