IFBTA - Key Persons
Zimmerman most recently served as VP, Global Product Management with the NCR Corporation, where he was responsible for all of the software products developed for and sold into the restaurant industry, overseeing significant modernization of the flagship Aloha products.
Prior to that, he worked for ten years with The Wendy's Company which at one point also included the Arby's brand. Don and his team were responsible for of the modernization of Arby's technology, the technology merger of Wendy's and Arby's, and the eventual spin out of Arby's. He spearheaded the first ever move to a consistent restaurant platform for the Wendy's brand enabling the start of their Digital Transformation journey.
Prior to his Arby's and Wendy's tenure, Zimmerman provided IT leadership to Sears, Roebuck and Company, PepsiCo, and General Dynamics in various capacities both domestic and international. His experience spans the development of business solutions, digital transformation, data warehousing, business intelligence, project management, and technical infrastructure.
Zimmerman graduated from the University of North Texas with an MBA and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Evangel University.
Don Zimmerman is currently the CIO for Landry's organization based in Houston Texas. In this role he and his team are responsible for all of the technology deployed by the company.
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Technology for Jollibee Foods Corporation
Kathy is the Director of Business Technology for Jollibee Foods Corporation. Her ultimate purpose is to help create efficiency through technology, and implementing new technology to assist with sales increase and company growth.
Her experience in the restaurant industry has reached over 30 years in both quick-service, as well as in full-service restaurants: 14 years in restaurant operations, and the latter years in Restaurant IT. The combination of her operational and technical knowledge definitely helps her accomplish IT projects for restaurants; thinking with both the operators and technologist in mind.
With the growing needs of the economy and the needs of our restaurant's guests, Kathy often enjoys learning and sharing information about Restaurant Technology, and looks forward to implementing new technologies that will benefit us in the restaurant industry.
Kathy has spoken in panels for conferences in MURTEC, YPO, and RestCon, and had written articles in publications of Hospitality Technology magazine. She also volunteers for the California Restaurant Association Foundation's Restaurants Care, Grateful Table and ProStart programs. The Restaurant Industry has been given her many great opportunities, so it's only right to pay it forward to others!
Job Titles:
- Director of Members Services & Events for the International Food and Beverage Technology Association
Lauren Selman is the Director of Members Services & Events for the International Food and Beverage Technology Association (IFBTA) with experience in communications and social media marketing. She has executed event management and public relations campaigns for a wide variety of clients, counting among her recent work successful efforts with the AFI Docs Film Festival, Double Exposure: Investigative Film Festival, and the Food Sales Technology Conference & Showcase (FSTEC).
Previously, Lauren coordinated materials for the cast and crews of national touring theatre productions at Troika Entertainment. She has conducted press outreach for AFI Docs (formerly AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival), The President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the College of Health & Human Development (HHD) at Penn State University, as well as several book and documentary releases. She has executed PR and marketing outreach for various clients, which garnered earned media hits in The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS and National Public Radio.
Job Titles:
- Immediate past Chair
- Information Technology Executive
Lou is an Information Technology Executive with over 35 years of experience in creating shareholder value and operational effectiveness through business process reengineering, IT and business alignment, and technology implementation. He has worked for organizations of all shapes and sizes, from small business, "mid-market" to Fortune Global 500 companies. He has broad experience in all aspects of system operations, IT governance, support services, compliance and development, and direct experience with IT strategy, project implementation, team organization and technology consulting.
His industry experience includes foodservice/hospitality, retail and management consulting where Lou gained a solid reputation among colleagues, business partners and customers alike as an executive with a rare balance of strategic insight, operational expertise, technical skills, financial skills, customer service and sales and marketing savvy.
Grande holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State University in Atlanta. Lou is a past Board Member and active participant of the NRA IT Executive Study Group, a Board Member of the International Food & Beverage Trade Association, an Advisory Council Member of FSTec, a Governing Board Member for the Orlando CXO Executive Summit, and an Advisory Board Member for SIM's Central Florida Innovation Connection.
Job Titles:
- Director of Research & Education
Michael L. Kasavana, Ph.D., is the Emeritus NAMA Endowed Professor in Hospitality Business, The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University having retired from MSU after nearly four decades of teaching and research. Kasavana holds CHTP (Certified Hospitality Technology Professional) and NCE5 (NAMA Certified Executive) certifications. He remains an active researcher and consultant, focusing on current and near future developments in hospitality-related technologies including: electronic commerce, self-service applications, property management systems, and transaction processing technology. He has also created a series of instructional materials, industry manuals, application software, and certification programs.
Dr. Kasavana is engaged in innovative and creative solutions for both attended and unattended points of sale for various aspects of the hospitality industry including online and offline, cash and cashless, contact and contactless, physical and virtual data exchange, location-based services, and interchange and merchant fee based digital media. He has conducted extensive research on the impact of technology on hospitality industry productivity, profitability, and competitive advantage and is credited with coining the phrases "V-Commerce", "V-Engineering", "Menu Engineering", and "Auto-Coursing."
Dr. Kasavana was named the 2011 NAMA Industry Person of the Year and is a recipient of the MSU Distinguished Faculty Award. In addition, he was inducted into the HFTP International Technology Hall of Fame and was presented the Distinguished Lifetime Achievements Award from FS/TEC for foodservice technology innovation. He has authored, or co-authored, several books, including the industry best-selling texts Managing Front Office Operations (10th edition) and Managing Technology in the Hospitality Industry (8th edition).
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Brinker International, Inc
- SVP & CIO, BRINKER INTERNATIONAL
Pankaj Patra serves as senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Brinker International, Inc., where he oversees information technology and data security for Brinker and its restaurants brands.
Pankaj is a longtime BrinkerHead and has served in multiple information technology leadership roles to help transform Brinker into a leader in restaurant technology. While his proudest moment is taking on his current role leading technology, he will always remember starting his IT days in a small closet developing software. Pankaj officially joined the Brinker family in 2012, but has a much longer history of about two decades working with the company through his previous roles at On the Border and Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Pankaj and his wife have one son and the rest of his family resides in India, so he leverages technology to call them on the way to work every day. In his spare time, you can find him watching any sport - he loves them all! Pankaj earned his undergraduate degree from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela and went on to attain his MBA from Southern Methodist University. He is a member of the Dallas chapter of the International Food and Beverage Technology Association.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Chapters and Events
Robin is a long-time hospitality industry executive with expertise in strategic operations and management. She was recently appointed as the Vice-President of Chapters and Events for the International Food & Beverage Technology Association. In this new role, she will be focusing on strategic programming development and company growth. Prior to joining IFBTA, she served as Senior Director of Member Engagement Programs for the National Restaurant Association. Her primary focus was developing the association's member programs and councils by creating strong conference agendas with meaningful content. Robin also spent thirteen years working on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC in both the House and Senate as a senior staff member. Her roles often allowed her to interact directly with the White House and other Executive Departments. Robin Griffith is the founder of Epicuity, LLC.; which is a consultant company focused on the hospitality industry.
She is an active member of the Charleston, SC Chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier International; and in the past had appointments on numerous boards and councils, including Charleston Wine & Food Festival, Greater Charleston Restaurant Association, Goodwill Business Leadership Council and the Public Policy Committee of the National Fragile X Foundation.
She enjoys speaking to elementary and high school students to promote making healthier meal choices and providing instructions on safe food handling. During her spare time, you will find Robin either spending quality time with her family, which includes two cats and a dog - all rescues, or practicing her culinary skills. Robin's southern culinary roots run deep; her ancestor was considered one of Charleston South Carolina's first top chefs, and the city's first renowned caterer in the late 1700s.
Job Titles:
- EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & CIO, HMSHOST
Sarah Naqvi am a visionary leader with 30+ years of proven record as a successful IT executive driving business transformation enabled by technology. With a direct reporting relationship into the office of the President, she is responsible for a yearly budget of over $50 million and management responsibility of a staff of 95+ global IT professionals. Sarah's current scope of responsibility includes supporting application development footprint, manage the security and compliance function, design and advance the network infrastructure and drive digital transformation for a $3 billion dollar food and beverage organization.With digital transformation a business necessity, Sarah has had the privilege to lead the strategic road map for digital and developed diverse digital end points to include kiosks, mobile apps, ecommerce platform, table-top ordering devices, and mobile wallet etc. to name a few.
The greatest achievement of all is Sarah's ability to develop high performing teams. With a collaborative style of management, she has led and helped complex teams achieve high standards of performance and exceed expectations and led boardroom discussion on strategy. Additionally, she has presented at a number of conferences, written for many notable publications and conducted webinars on digital.
Job Titles:
- DIRECTOR of RESTAURANT TECHNOLOGY & PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT, KFC UK & IRELAND
- Group Head of Operations Technology at Nando's
An IT executive with over 15 years' experience leading transformation programs for some of the world's largest hospitality brands.
Vikram recently joined KFC to evolve the Restaurant Technology landscape across the UKI estates 1000 restaurants and will partner with Yum globally to develop the Kitchen of the Future in a lead market capacity.
In his previous role as Group Head of Operations Technology at Nando's, Vikram was responsible for driving innovation and leveraging cutting edge technologies to improve efficiency and consumer relevance across a global estate of 1300 restaurants.
Prior to Nando's, Vikram worked at McDonald's for five years where he was responsible for restaurant back-office systems and the development and rollout of the McDonald's Restaurant Experience of the Future across Europe.
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer for Five Guys Enterprises, L.L.C
Zerrick Pearson is the Chief Information Officer for Five Guys Enterprises, L.L.C., a company that operates more than 1350 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.
Zerrick is a member of the IFBTA and various other industry specific IT organizations.