Contributors
David Strauss
David currently serves as SVP of Sales at SumUp USA, where he leads the U.S. revenue organization in support of SumUp's global mission to empower small businesses with accessible financial tools. Prior to SumUp, he held senior sales leadership roles at ezCater as VP of Sales, served as CRO at BoardOnTrack, and spent seven years at LivingSocial — where he progressed from growing the Greater Boston region from $750K to over $4M in billing, to leading international sales and operations across Australia, the UK, Spain, Italy, Chile, and Southeast Asia.
William Stutzman
William is Vice President Strategic Initiatives for Ventus.Andreas Suma
Andreas Suma is passionate about how technology and consumer behavior drive innovative customer experiences. He is instrumental in introducing new chat channels at Clickatell that change the way customers engage with brands. Having lived and worked in over 26 countries, today he focuses on core markets, including the US, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico, and works with large enterprises.Catherine Tabor
For the past 10 years, Catherine has served as the founder and CEO of Sparkfly, an offer management platform that helps restaurant and retail marketers improve customer acquisition and loyalty programs by connecting real-time consumer behavior with online and in-store sales. She has worked with more than 65 brands, powering more than 10,000 locations with more than 100 million transactions. The company's growth trajectory has increased dramatically over the past year, with record quarter over quarter revenue and bookings growth that is leading to the largest hiring demand the company has faced.
Catherine has deep expertise in the technology and digital/mobile and offline programs that power customer loyalty and acquisition, including digital wallet, providing intelligence to in-store and above store point-of-sale transactional data, offer management and point-of-sale systems.
James Tang
James Tang is the CEO of Beyond Menu, an online ordering and digital marketing platform for independent restaurants. A former investment banker and longtime CFO, he joined Beyond Menu in 2022 and took over as CEO in 2023. He has built the company around a single customer: the owner running a 12-hour day with no marketing team, no IT, and no support staff. He holds an MBA from Wharton and is based in Atlanta.
Angie Terrell
With over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, Angie Terrell is the Group Design Director at Stellar Elements, where she leads a dedicated team of designers and directors in their mission to enhance the digital experiences of Fortune 500 clients. Angie's unwavering commitment to excellence has established her as a visionary leader in the realm of experience design.
Megan Tevrizian
Vlad Rikhter is the founder and CEO of Zenput, a top-ranked operations execution platform for multi-unit restaurants, convenience stores, and grocers. Zenput is used in over 60,000 locations in more than 100 countries by top brands, including Domino's, Chipotle, P.F. Chang's, Five Guys, KFC, Smart & Final, and Global.
Mark Tina
Delivering best-in-class employee development and learning programs for all levels of the organization, Mark has created and implemented a wide range of mentorship, coaching, and leadership development programs to build strong culture and positive employee engagement in all locations.
George Tinsley Sr.
George Tinsley Sr. is the award-winning author of Catch as Catch Can: Building a Legacy By Finding Opportunity in Every Obstacle. Tinsley is co-founder, vice president, and managing partner of Tinsley Family Concessions, Inc. Tinsley also was the founder and president of PenGeo Inc., dba KFC, which has been sold. He is president and CEO of GW Tinsley Consulting, Inc. Tinsley played professional basketball in the American Basketball Association and was a two-time college basketball All-American at Kentucky Wesleyan College. He is also a nine-time Hall of Famer in both business and athletics.
Antonio Tomarchio
Antonio Tomarchio is the founder and CEO of Cuebiq. An impressive entrepreneur, he has founded several companies since the age of 19. Antonio holds an M.S. in Mathematical Engineering from Polytechnic University of Milan and a double degree in Engineering Science from the Ecole Centrale de Paris.
Erick Tu
Erick Tu, Founder & CEO of BLogic Systems, is a trusted leader in restaurant technology. His firsthand experience in restaurants revealed inefficient POS systems, inspiring him to establish BLogic in 2010. He leverages deep industry insight to deliver human-centric, reliable POS solutions that drive efficiency and profitability for businesses in food service, retail and hospitality industries.
Carl Udler
With over 25 years of professional experience,15 of which has focused on the franchise industry, Carl Udler possesses a rare blend of technology expertise combined with Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) and Certified Foodservice Technology Professional (CFTP) industry credentials. As a senior director at Hughes, Carl provides valuable guidance to Franchisors and retailers on a broad range of technologies, processes, networking best practices, and cybersecurity solutions, enabling them to solve the types of concrete challenges that impact business, customers and ROI.Matt Umholtz
Matt Umholtz is a seasoned entrepreneur, sales leader, and growth strategist with a proven track record of scaling companies. As President and Chief Revenue Officer of AllianceHCM—one of the nation’s fastest-growing human capital management providers—Matt partners with America’s leading restaurant brands to drive performance and operational excellence. Prior to joining AllianceHCM, Matt founded and successfully exited his own HR technology firm, earning recognition for his leadership.
Lisa van Kesteren
Lisa van Kesteren is the founder and CEO of SeeLevel HX, a leading mystery shopping market research agency. The company is best known for its hallmark mystery shopping programs, including for seven of the top 10 national QSR brands.
Jarrett Wagner
Jarrett Wagner is a risk control representative at Society Insurance. He began his career at Society Insurance in 2008 in the property, auto and liability claims department. During his tenure at Society Insurance, he earned his AIC and AIS designations and has spent the past three years in risk control. Wagner has a B.A. degree in criminal justice from Illinois State University.
Vivian Wang
Vivian Wang is the Founder & CEO of LANDED, an AI-driven hiring platform that helps restaurants and hospitality employers quickly hire top talent. A Princeton graduate in Public and International Affairs, Vivian has advised European central banks on financial strategy at BlackRock, launched Asia and EMEA markets for Matterport (NASDAQ: MTTR), and led C-suite projects at Gap, Inc. Her diverse experience fuels LANDED’s mission to support career and financial growth for blue-collar workers.
Tim Watt
Tim Watt is a Tax Partner at Bennett Thrasher, Georgia's largest independent accounting firm. He focuses primarily on complex tax consulting, technical partnership issues, structuring and tax accounting methods for U.S. restaurant and hospitality industries, supporting and advising restaurant owners, franchise operators and franchisors at household-name QSR brands.
Dave Wiens
Dave is the CEO and co-founder of Pulsa, the award-winning platform that offers the most sophisticated and affordable gas monitoring solution. He is a licensed mechanical engineer, a sensor expert and has spent his career building systems to solve physical world problems across multiple industries, including aerospace, steel manufacturing, energy, logistics, and retail. Dave holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC San Diego.
Steven Wiideman
With over 15 years of specializing in multi-location SEO, Steve Wiideman has pioneered advanced areas of multi-listing presence within blended Map and Web search results, helping franchises scale SEO. He is Author of the textbook SEO: Strategy & Skills and teaches at UCSD and CSUF when not running his consultancy in the Los Angeles Area.
Peter Wiley
I enjoy building brands, solving hard problems, helping teams grow, and encouraging people to use their gifts and talents. I'm self-taught across an eclectic mix of disciplines — graphic design, web development, audio engineering, video production, networking, and IT — which means I can usually build, fix, or lead whatever the moment calls for. When not working, you'll find me hanging out with grandkids, cooking, or running live sound for my church or a local country band.
Featured Vendor
HungerRush brings every part of your restaurant together — orders, guests, data — in one platform built for fast casual and quick-serve multi-location brands ready to grow.
Subscribe
Get the latest news and resources from QSR Web.
Recent Posts
Recent Podcasts
