Fast Casual Industry Council Steering Committee Members

Louis Basile
CEO, Wildflower Bread Company
Louis Basile is the CEO of Wildflower Bread Co. in Scottsdale, Ariz. He is considered one of the most passionate leaders in the Fast Causal restaurant segment. Wildflower is now for great food and a passion for its customers. Louis was on the founding committee of the Fast Casual Executive Summit and in 2008, was elected to lead the Fast Casual Executive Alliance as president.

Paul Barron
Publisher, FastCasual.com
Paul Barron is considered the man who coined the term "fast casual" and founded fastcasual.com. Paul brings 15 years of experience, expertise and understanding of why this cult-like segment has become the most powerful segment in the restaurant industry.

Linda Duke
CEO, Duke Marketing
Linda Duke is one of the founding members of the Fast Casual Executive Summit and was elected secretary of the alliance in 2008. Ms. Duke is CEO of Duke Marketing, which she founded in 1987 specializing in marketing for multi-location and franchise organizations. Ms. Duke has consulted with the top restaurant brands in the United States, and is a nationally recognized speaker, educator and a published author. She speaks frequently at restaurant and franchise industry and client conferences, and is a member of the board of directors of the California Restaurant Association’s Educational Foundation. Ms. Duke is a contributing writer for several restaurant, hospitality and franchise industry trade and business publications and an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco where she has taught Advertising Strategy to the MBA students. Ms. Duke holds bachelor degrees in both Advertising and Marketing and an Executive MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.

Ed Frechette
Senior vice president of marketing / owner, Au Bon Pain
Ed Frechette is the Senior vice president of marketing at Au Bon Pain, overseeing all aspects of marketing, concept design and brand-building. Ed started his career working in advertising in Chicago at Leo Burnett and DDB Needham on great all-American brands ranging from Kellogg’s to Busch Beer to Hamburger Helper. He then moved on to Dunkin’ Donuts, where he spent over 16 years working on everything from product marketing, sales promotion, field marketing and new-concept development. In his current role, Ed is helping to shape the future of Au Bon Pain through refinement of branding and marketing strategies, materials and tactics.

George Green
Vice president, Bread & Company
A native of New Orleans and graduate of the University of North Carolina, Green is currently spearheading the growth, expansion, training, and organizational development for Bread & Company — an artisan bakery/café chain based in Nashville, Tenn. During the current management team’s time with the company, Bread & Company has grown by 45% (mostly from same store sales growth), and boxed lunch sales have grown from $35,000 to $150,000 per month. For the last 2 years in a row, Bread & Company has been named to INC magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies. Only 148 food and beverage industry companies made the list this year.

Although Bread & Company is a leader in the implementation of technology, Green argues that nothing is more important than having great people serving great food. "From the very beginning of my career working for the Ralph Brennan family and the House of Blues, I realized that great food was not enough for success in the restaurant business. To be truly excellent, restaurants also needed great people and great people practices. Obviously, this is truer than ever with the challenging economic conditions and demographic trends we will all face in the months and years to come."

Husein Kitabwalla
President, Retail Brand Group, LLC
As president, Husein Kitabwalla leads the strategic direction of the Retail Brand Group, LLC, Sodexo’s retail restaurant development team that offers Sodexo clients access to a comprehensive portfolio of nine fast-casual restaurant concepts in all of the most popular restaurant categories. Each of Retail Brand Group’s concepts, including the award-winning Jazzman’s Café and Pandini’s, is a fully-supported operation offering memorable, guest-pleasing dining experiences, and a reputation for innovation and service. Kitabwalla, who joined the company in 1999, is considered an industry expert on retail trends and operations and has spoken on the retail environment and creating an over the top customer experience at a number of events.

Born and raised in Kenya, Africa, Kitabwalla moved to the United States in 1987 when he received a scholarship to attend the College of Wooster in Ohio. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree, he began his career as a foodservice director at Ashland College in Ohio. At Ashland, Husein gained valuable experience in the non-commercial business segment as well as general operations, but it was his experience managing a collection of restaurants on Main Street USA at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., where he sharpened his skill for creating unforgettable customer experiences. As area operations manager, he oversaw the concept development and operations of six restaurants totaling over $30 million, and served on the President’s Council on Guest Services.

Husein has received many awards and accolades during his career and was named a “Mover and Shaper” in Restaurants & Institutions magazine.

Daniel Pittard
President & CEO, Rubio's Restaurants, Inc.
Mr. Pittard’s diverse background includes key executive positions at companies including McKinsey & Company, PepsiCo, Inc., and Amoco Corp. (now part of BP). As a partner at McKinsey & Company, Mr. Pittard served a wide range of clients including consumer companies that he helped develop profitable growth strategies and build new organizational capabilities. He was also active in the operations and technology practices as well as the Corporate Leadership Center. During his tenure at PepsiCo, Inc., he held several senior executive positions. These included senior vice president, operations for PepsiCo Foods International and senior vice president and general manager, new ventures for Frito-Lay. Most recently, Mr. Pittard has been a private investor serving on the boards of directors of private and public companies as well as on occasions serving as executive chairman and interim CEO.

Mr. Pittard graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in industrial management and received an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He currently resides in the San Diego area.

Darren Tristano
Executive vice president, Technomic
An executive vice president at Technomic, Darren has led the development and growth of Technomic’s information services division since 1993, while also serving in a strategic capacity directing multiple aspects of Technomic’s ongoing operations. Darren is responsible for industry tracking services and reports that foodservice executives rely on for market intelligence. These industry-standard sources include the Digital Resource Library, MenuMonitor and PriceMonitor services.

For more than five years, he has led advisory group services for Technomic’s operator and supplier clients. These groups have been essential to maintaining close contact with the industry and providing unparalleled access to frontline industry issues.

Specializing in major national restaurant chain concept and menu development, as well as smaller emerging regional chains, he is often quoted in trade, news and business media, including MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chain Leader, Nation’s Restaurant News, Franchise Times, Restaurant Business, QSR Magazine and numerous other online and print newspapers and trade press.

Dave Wolfgram
Founder of Go Roma & CEO of Forklift Brands, the parent company of Go Roma and Boudin Bakeries
Dave Wolfgram began his career in the restaurant industry in the 1970's managing Hedon Place, an independent restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. In 1979, he joined Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE), a Chicago, Illinois multi-concept restaurant company, where he held a variety of positions for a number of restaurant concepts.

In 1991, Wolfgram co-founded Maggiano's Little Italy and the Corner Bakery Café, a LEYE restaurant concept. In 1996, Corner Bakery Café was acquired by Brinker International, a Dallas, Texas based publicly-owned restaurant corporation (NYSE-EAT). Wolfgram served as president and led the Corner Bakery Café expansion across the United States until 2003, when he left to start the development of Go Roma Italian Kitchen. At the time of his departure, Corner Bakery Café had grown to 80 cafes, generating $140 million in annual sales.

In 2004, Wolfgram partnered with GESD Capital Partners, a San Francisco based private equity firm, to create Forklift Brands. Forklift Brands, in addition to Go Roma, operates Boudin Bakeries. Founded in the early days of the Gold Rush in 1849, Boudin Bakery is the creator of the Original San Francisco Sourdough French Bread.