James J. Greco | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Georgetown University (A.B.) University of Miami School of Law (J.D.) City University, London, UK |
Occupation | Business executive [1] [2] |
James Joseph Greco (born January 4, 1958) is an American businessman and entrepreneur. Currently, he serves as the chief executive officer of Tijuana Flats. [3] Throughout his career, he has held numerous executive positions in the foodservice industry, as well as various directorships. [4] [5]
Greco was born in New Haven, Connecticut and grew up in nearby Hamden, Connecticut. He graduated from Hamden High School in 1976, earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Georgetown University in 1980 and a J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law, in 1983. He also completed international studies at City University, London, England. [6]
Greco is a member of the Connecticut and Florida Bar Associations; and has served on the boards of directors for the Lender School of Business at Quinnipiac University, Fazoli's Restaurants, Inc., the Connecticut Food Bank, the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, Circle Peak Capital, Share Our Strength: Dine Out, The UCAN Company, and the International Dairy Foods Association. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Currently, he serves on the boards of True Drinks Holdings, Inc., a publicly traded healthy beverage company, Republic Fire Protection, Inc., and the Palm Beach County Food Bank. [2] [13] [14] [11] Additionally, Greco is a managing director at private equity firm Lincoln Road Global Management, a partner at hospitality consulting firm Results Thru Strategy, and president and chief executive officer of foodservice investment firm Pilgrim Holdings. [15] [16] [7] [17] [1] [2] [18]
Greco is married, the father of two sons, and resides in Delray Beach, Florida. [19] [20]
After graduating from law school, he served as a partner in the Connecticut-based Greco and Greco law firm, from 1983 to 1991, specializing in consultation to and representation of real estate and corporate clients. [6]
Greco executed one of his first turnarounds at Ellington, Connecticut-based Natural Country Farms, a manufacturer of private label and foodservice fruit juices, where he served as COO for five years. [10]
Following Natural Country Farms, he served for seven years as CEO of Fieldbrook Farms, a $100 million manufacturer of private label ice cream in Dunkirk, New York. A team of investors, led by Greco, took over a failing Fieldbrook Farms and named him CEO. In that capacity, he successfully designed and executed a strategic plan to turn the company around. His efforts resulted in doubled profits and an increase in productivity. [21]
Greco joined Bruegger's as CEO in 2003. Following his arrival, the company achieved over twenty consecutive quarters of positive same store sales and total-sales growth. [22] [23] In 2010, Bruegger's announced $254 million in revenue. [24] Under him, the company expanded to over 300 bakery cafés in 26 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. [25] On November 13, 2009, he oversaw their eleventh and largest acquisition [26] to occur during his tenure, when Bruegger's purchased the holdings of Timothy's World Coffee. Through a wholly owned subsidiary, called Threecaf Brands Canada Inc., Bruegger's assumed control of Timothy's three restaurant brands: Timothy's World Coffee, Michel's Bakery Café, and mmmuffins. [24]
On October 5, 2009, he was named operator of the year by the Nation's Restaurant News during the publication's golden anniversary celebration at the 50th anniversary Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators (MUFSO) conference. [27]
In March 2011, Groupe Le Duff, a French restaurant group, acquired the Bruegger's chain and its subsidiaries from the private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, earning ownership a return of 36% per year, or 13 times, on its investment and making Groupe Le Duff the second largest bakery café group in the world. [28] Greco was named CEO of the company's American restaurant holdings, under the name Le Duff America, headquartered in Burlington, Vermont; Dallas, Texas; and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [29] During his tenure, Le Duff America was the parent company of the restaurant chains Bruegger's, La Madeleine, Mimi's Cafe, Brioche Dorée, Timothy's World Coffee, Michel's Bakery Café, mmmuffins, as well as several others. The group, under him, ran over 600 restaurants and annually saw about $450 million in revenue. In December 2011, he announced he would be leaving the company at the end of the year to pursue other opportunities. [30] [31]
In January 2012, Greco joined Sbarro as CEO, president, and board member. [32] Sbarro, then headquartered in Melville, Huntington, New York, was one of the world's leading Italian quick service restaurant chains and the largest "shopping mall-focused" restaurant concept in the world. Under him, Sbarro operated 1,100 restaurants in nearly 45 countries. [33] Greco, credited with the strong performance and growth of Bruegger's, was recruited to Sbarro to lead its turnaround. [34] Confident about Sbarro's prospects, he designed a short-term strategic plan calling for a focus on "people, place, product and positioning." [35] Longer term, he implemented plans to shift Sbarro from its quick-service, food court based, status into the fast casual arena. [36] He centered on making Sbarro the preeminent fast-casual Italian brand worldwide, an unclaimed position, and one he felt fit Sbarro well. [37] He improved the quality and variety of products, ingredients and preparation. [38] His changes also included an increased emphasis on employee hospitality and a shift from its shopping mall focus to a more store front oriented concept. [39] He believed accomplishing these initiatives would position the firm into fast-casual preeminence. He left the company in late 2013. [35] [40]
Since leaving Sbarro, Greco has held a number of interim executive leadership positions and consulting assignments. These have included President of Newk's Eatery from 2014 to 2016, [41] [42] CEO of True Drinks, Inc. from 2017 to 2018, [43] and Interim CEO of Palm Beach County Food Bank from 2020 to 2021. [44] While at Newks, Greco developed an expansion plan that grew the chain 70% ranking it as the 5th fastest growing chain and resulting in its inclusion in the Nation’s Restaurant News' Top 200 for the first time. [45] [46] While at the Palm Beach County Food Bank, he led the charity during the COVID-19 pandemic through the largest increase in demand in its history with distribution increasing three-fold to 2 million pounds of food per month. [47]
Hala Moddelmog became the first female president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC) in January 2014, following a career in the corporate and non-profit sectors. Moddelmog has 19 years of career experience in president and CEO roles. Her areas of expertise are strategic planning, marketing, brand and product development, and assembling and managing high performance teams and brand revitalization. Moddelmog is currently the President and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, a role she took on in September 2020.
Timothy's World Coffee is a large Canadian coffee roasting company and chain of coffeeshops.
Bruegger's Enterprises, Inc. is a restaurant operator and subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based company JAB Holding Company. Bruegger's and its wholly-owned subsidiary Threecaf Brands Canada, Inc., are franchisers and operators of Bruegger's bakery-cafés, and Michel's Baguette.
Bob Evans Restaurants, also known as Bob Evans, is an American chain of restaurants owned by Golden Gate Capital based in New Albany, Ohio. After its founding in 1948 by Bob Evans (1918–2007), the restaurant chain evolved into a company with the corporate brand name "Bob Evans Farms, Inc." (BEF), and eventually established a separate food division to handle the sale of its products in other markets.
Sbarro, LLC is an American fast food restaurant that specializes in New York–style pizza sold by the slice and other Italian-American cuisine. In 2011, the company was ranked 15th in foreign sales among U.S.-based quick-serve and fast-casual companies by QSR Magazine. In 2008, Sbarro was rated the No. 1 Quick Service Restaurant in the Italian segment by Entrepreneur magazine. However, diners and critics have criticized the quality of the food, with some suggesting a link between food quality and the company's two bankruptcies. Sbarro has over 600 locations in 28 countries. Sbarro stores are located in shopping malls, airports, service areas, and college campuses, as well as in The Pentagon, American naval bases, and casinos.
Marvellous Mmmuffins, also known as mmmuffins, was a Canadian restaurant chain that sold coffee and muffins. It was established in 1979 and granted its first franchise in 1980.
Lee's Sandwiches International, Inc., is a Vietnamese-American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in San Jose, California, with locations in several states and in Taiwan. Lee's Sandwiches specializes in bánh mì, "European-style" baguette sandwiches, Vietnamese iced coffee, and Vietnamese dessert chè. It is credited with popularizing Vietnamese sandwiches and iced coffee among mainstream American consumers and inspiring several other Vietnamese-owned bakery chains.
La Madeleine de Corps, Inc., operating as La Madeleine, is a restaurant chain of 86 locations in the U.S. states of Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Virginia. Its headquarters is in Dallas, Texas.
Mimi's Bistro + Bakery is an American restaurant chain. As of April 2024, the company operates 44 locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah. Originally headquartered in Tustin, California, its headquarters moved to Dallas, Texas in 2014 after 36 years in California. It serves French and American food, with French rustic decor and themes.
Country Pure Foods is an American manufacturer of fruit drinks, juices, and plant-based beverages for retail food purveyors and foodservice operators. It also provides food manufacturers with fruit ingredients. The company's brand names include Ardmore Farms, SideKicks, VBlends, Fun!, VitaMost, and Glacier Valley. Country Pure Foods is owned by Blue Point Capital Partners, LLC, a private equity investor based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Nation's Restaurant News (NRN) is an American trade publication, founded in 1967. NRN covers the foodservice industry, including restaurants, restaurant chains, operations, marketing, and events. It is owned by Penton Media, who purchased it from founding company Lebhar-Friedman in December 2010. Nation's Restaurant News's sister publications are Restaurant Hospitality, Food Management, Supermarket News, and MUFSO.
Brioche Dorée is a French chain of bakery-café restaurants founded in 1976 and originally started in Brest. The company was founded by Louis Le Duff, current president of Groupe Le Duff. The name means "Golden Brioche" in French.
Groupe Le Duff is a French restaurant conglomerate, with holdings in Europe and the Americas, consisting of over 1,310 restaurants and bakeries. It includes Bridor, La Madeleine, Kamps, Mimi's Cafe, Pizza Del Arte, and Brioche Dorée.
Newk's Eatery is an American chain of fast casual cafés which operates over 100 restaurants in 13 states.
Løgismose Meyers is a food company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. It produces and purveys a wide range of food products under the Løgismose and Meyers brands and is also active in the market for foodservice. It owns the chains Meyers Bageri, Meyers Diner and Meyers Madhus.
Trevor Haynes is an Australian businessman, and president, North America of the Subway fast food chain. He was appointed acting CEO from June 2018 until November 2019, after Suzanne Greco retired. In November 2019, Subway named former Burger King chief executive John Chidsey as CEO.
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