Speakers

Kelly Grogan is a highly successful executive in the hospitality industry with extensive experience and achievements in driving revenue growth in both B2B and B2C settings. With a keen understanding of market dynamics and consumer preferences, she has consistently devised and executed innovative sales strategies that have propelled her employers and clients to new heights of success. Her tenure in the restaurant space has been marked by a series of notable accomplishments. Through strategic partnerships, targeted marketing initiatives, and an ability to build from the ground up, Kelly has grown both new and established departments to achieve significant incremental revenue growth. By leveraging her expertise in identifying and capitalizing on emerging trends, as well as her ability to work cross-functionally across all departments, she has seen great success at both the corporate and local store levels.

Nicole Aguilar is a catering sales professional with over a decade of experience turning relationships into revenue. Her career has been the perfect blend of her passion for hospitality, relationship building, and restaurant industry expertise. After nearly 10 years with Cafe Rio Mexican Grill, where she helped the brand grow from 36 locations to over 130, Nicole joined Houston TX Hot Chicken (HHC) to build its catering department from the ground up. Today, she leads catering and off-premise growth strategy across sales, marketing, and operations, driving revenue through meaningful community connections, grassroots sales efforts, and targeted marketing initiatives. With experience supporting multi-unit, multi-market growth, Nicole understands that what happens behind the scenes is just as important as what happens in the field. Her focus is building the right systems, infrastructure, and partnerships to make catering growth repeatable, scalable, and sustainable.

Dave Baer started as a driver for Domino’s Pizza while in college 1991. He managed a Domino’s Pizza restaurant in 1994 and was immediately named Rookie manager of the year. From 1994-1998 he quickly ascended the ranks at Dominos where he held positions of Supervisor, Senior Supervisor and Training Director of Corporate operations at Domino’s Pizza in the Northeast. From 1998-2012, he was the VP of Operations for a 17 unit Franchise Domino franchise. Since 2012, he has been creating and scaling multiple emerging brands including Zinga and Firenza Pizza. Most recently he has been honing HCK Hot Chicken as well as acting as the Chief Operating Officer for Mahana Fresh.

With more than 25 years of experience in delivery, Chris Barnes began his career at just 16 years old, building expertise across last-mile logistics, courier services, fulfillment, and every stage of the delivery process—long before GPS, smartphones, and real-time tracking transformed the industry. Today, he leads the Delivery Pillar at dlivrd Technologies, overseeing four brands: Expedite, FULFLLD, Logiscal, and Couri. Each brand addresses a unique aspect of the delivery ecosystem, and together—alongside dlivrd Technologies' broader suite of products—they provide a comprehensive catering and delivery solution. His operational philosophy is simple: build systems that perform when real-world conditions become unpredictable. He believes there is a critical difference between a well-designed plan and an operation that consistently delivers results. At its core, he views delivery as a people business enabled by technology—not the other way around—and that perspective continues to guide his leadership and approach to innovation.

Cherryh Cansler is VP of Events for Connect Media and publisher of FastCasual.com. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

Tanya B. Dixon joined Salata in 2016 and has since held several key leadership roles, including Director of Operations. With 18 years of experience in the restaurant and hospitality industry, she now leads Salata’s Off-Premises Department, where she drives innovation and growth across catering, delivery, and digital channels. Under her leadership, the brand has significantly expanded its digital presence and off-premises strategy, aligning operations with evolving guest expectations and market trends.

Michael Dolinger is a veteran in multi-unit restaurant operations, having worked for companies like Caribou Coffee and Glory Days Grill. Mike started his career as a franchisee with ExxonMobil and earned degrees from Johnson and Wales, L’Academie de Cuisine and Radford University.

Gabriela Keown is a hospitality and operations professional with extensive experience managing catering, client relations, and multi-brand restaurant operations. She specializes in event coordination, corporate accounts, operational problem-solving, and creating seamless guest experiences across multiple concepts and teams. Known for her strong communication skills and hands-on leadership approach, Gabriela works closely with partners, vendors, and internal teams to drive growth, improve processes, and deliver exceptional service in fast-paced environments.

Crystal Leuty is a Marketing Manager focused on off-premise sales at Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Q. With over 25 years in the hospitality industry, Crystal brings a strong background in catering sales program execution, community relations implementation, and strategic brand development. Notably, she helped launch Jim ‘N Nick’s online catering platform, streamlining the off-premise ordering experience. She champions the brand’s growth with a dedicated passion for expanding community relations and elevating brand awareness while strategically driving off-premise sales development. Throughout her career, Crystal has focused on executing regional marketing strategies and building impactful community partnerships within the food and beverage industry.

Brittany Mercer is a results-driven marketing executive with over 16 years of experience leading high-impact strategies across the restaurant industry. She specializes in local store marketing, off-premise growth, and brand development that drives both top-line sales and long-term brand equity. With a background rooted in operations and catering sales, Brittany brings a deep understanding of what matters most to restaurant operators: practical, actionable marketing that moves the needle. Known for blending creative storytelling with data-informed decisions, she’s passionate about building loyal guest relationships, supporting field teams, and creating marketing programs that feel as authentic as they are effective.

Quinn Newhall is Chief Operating Officer of Clean Eatz, the fast-growing healthy-food franchise with 100+ locations nationwide. A veteran restaurant operator, he brings deep multi-unit and franchise experience from leadership roles at brands including Charleys Philly Steaks and CiCi's Pizza to Clean Eatz's mission of changing lives through clean, balanced food.

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.

Ben Pidduck is the Chief Executive Officer at MONKEY. Ben joined MONKEY in April of 2025 as part of MONKEY’s divestiture from ezCater and to herald in organization’s new era of partner growth, product revitalization, and client service. Ben’s experience spans food & beverage, restaurants, software, and consumer industries, helping leading organizations around the world craft strategies, drive hands-on operational change, and upgrade product, sales, and marketing processes. Ben has worked across several Fortune 500 restaurant franchisors and franchisees -touching everything from new market expansion to culinary innovation, stood-up end-to-end operations for a meal kit startup, and most recently worked for McKinsey & Company’s Private Equity practice.

Arya Rashtchian is Co-founder and CEO of Omnirev. His graduate education is in AI and machine learning, and he started his path in the restaurant industry building products including hyperlocal marketplaces, then an end-to-end catering platform, Omnicart, which was acquired by Dlivrd Technologies in 2025. Since then, Arya has brought his background in catering, sales, and AI together to build an AI-driven sales engine that helps restaurant brands grow their catering revenue. He has been recognized on British Columbia's Top 30 Under 30 list and was named Canada's Top Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2024.

Courtney Smith is Head of Brand Partnerships at MONKEY. Courtney joined Monkey Media in March of 2024 with a passion to help brands utilize the Monkey Media software to the best of their capabilities while also partnering to influence first party sales building. Courtney brings over 25 years of food and beverage operations, off premise implementation, catering sales program creation, training and strategy development experience. Courtney has held positions as Vice President of Sales for Newk’s Eatery, Director of Catering & Banquet Sales for Firebird Restaurant Group, which included 6 brands. Director of Off-Premise Sales for la Madeleine, a total of 11 years with Corner Bakery Café, including several roles and Operations Management with Hillstone Restaurant Group.