The “Wow” Factor: Guest Experience That Turns One Order Into a Regular

Claudie Newman is a hospitality leader with more than 20 years of experience in food and beverage, event sales, private dining and catering. Her career has taken her from South Africa to Las Vegas, and San Francisco and Washington, DC, where she has focused on driving growth and innovation for multiple nationally recognized restaurant brands. Claudie currently leads catering sales for New York Based Founders-Table, the company behind: Chopt Creative Salad Co. and Dos Toros Taqueria. Claudie is focused on strengthening brand reputation and sales to deliver a best-in-class catering product that continues to expand in step with her company's rapid growth.

Dipesh Patel is a strategic operations and brand leader with over a decade of experience driving growth across the restaurant and foodservice industry. He currently serves as Vice President of Driver Operations at Meals Now, where he oversees driver staffing, recruitment marketing, and delivery quality standards. Prior to Meals Now, Dipesh held senior leadership roles spanning some of the industry's most recognized brands: as Vice President of Catering & Off-Premise at Steele Brands, he directed digital and off-premise strategy for the CRISP & GREEN and PURALIMA brands; as Sr. Manager of Off-Premises Strategy at CAVA, he led catering, first-party, and third-party delivery businesses, growing digital sales revenue by approximately $100 million; and at Inspire Brands, he led off-premise brand experience and value strategy for Buffalo Wild Wings, including the national launch of the Buffalo Wild Wings GO® brand.