PANELISTS

Tommi Tervanen | CEO | Kotipizza Group

Tommi Tervanen is the CEO of Kotipizza Group. He is also the chairman of The Finnish Franchising Association. His career started at the leading Finnish retail company Kesko where he worked as product manager. In the early 2000s, he founded the sourcing and logistics operator Helsinki Foodstock which has since grown into an over 50 MEu business. He started as CEO of Kotipizza Group in 2011. The Kotipizza Group consists of Kotipizza, the largest pizza chain in the Northern Europe, Chalupa, a Mexican style fast casual restaurant chain, and Helsinki Foodstock. The Kotipizza chain has significantly revamped its concept in the past few years and changed its marketing strategy completely.

Alice Theunissen | Director of Operations & Development | New York Pizza

Alice Theunissen has been heading up the Operations and Development department of New York Pizza since 2015. New York Pizza is a Dutch Franchised pizza delivery business that will have 200 stores by the end of 2018. Prior to joining New York Pizza, Alice worked at Starbucks Coffee Company and was involved in developing Starbucks licensing programme across Europe. Alice’s motto is “I believe in nurturing a strong team culture to focus and drive valuable change.”

Yuval Tori | Head of Europe | Bringg

Yuval Tori has over 15 years of international business development experience in various enterprise markets. Prior to Bringg, Yuval was EVP and GM at Prime Focus Technologies, where he focused on growing the company’s business in the EMEA markets. Earlier, he was with Pilat Media, Amdocs and Comverse where he successfully led sales, business development and alliance teams. Yuval is also a former lawyer with specialization in company law and torts. He holds an MBA, LLB and BA in Economics degrees.

Thayer Wiederhorn | CMO | FAT Brands

Thayer Wiederhorn, has served as the Chief Marketing Officer of FAT Brands Inc. since March 2017. As CMO, he has overseen global branding and marketing for over 300 corporate and franchise owned Fatburger, Buffalo’s Express, Buffalo’s Cafe and Ponderosa & Bonanza Steakhouse restaurants in over 18 countries. His responsibilities include overseeing all franchisor marketing initiatives, brand advertising funds, websites, social media, menu analysis, menu development, new product development, mobile and digital strategy, customer satisfaction, agency relationships, public relations, media buying, LSM (local store marketing) programs, 4-wall in-store merchandising, partnerships and promotions, retail licensing product lines, product placements and experiential marketing.

MODERATOR

Cherryh Cansler | Managing Editor | FastCasual.com

Before joining Networld Media Group as Director of Editorial, where she oversees NetWorld Media Group’s nine B2B publications, Cherryh Cansler served as Content Specialist at Barkley ad agency in Kansas City. Throughout her 17-year career as a journalist, she’s written about a variety of topics, ranging from the restaurant industry and technology to health and fitness news. Her byline has appeared in a plethora of newspapers, magazines and websites, including Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine. She also serves as the managing editor for FastCasual.com.