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MEET OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

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Roland Gonzalez

Chief Executive Officer

Roland has more than 12 years of industry experience in franchising, operations, P&L management, global business strategies and process improvement to Church’s Texas Chicken®. He is an innovative and results-driven leader who drives core business metrics for the brand.

Prior to Church’s®, Roland served in a leadership role at Virtual Dining Concepts as their EVP, Chief Operating Officer. Before Virtual Dining Concepts, he was with Restaurant Brands International (RBI) as their Head of Global Operations Standards and Strategy.

Roland earned his MBA and Bachelor of International Business Administration from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is on his alma mater’s Board of Trustees as Treasurer and received the 40 Under 40 award from the South Florida Business Journal and the Executive Award from the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce. He is also a board member and supporter of the non-profit Share Your Heart.

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Bobby Morena

Chief Development Officer

Bobby brings more than 25 years of franchise development experience in the restaurant industry, with leadership roles at Jimmy John's and GoToFoods.

Known for accelerating growth and strengthening franchise partnerships, Bobby will oversee franchise sales, real estate, design and construction to drive continued expansion across the U.S.

 

Throughout his career, Bobby has delivered impressive growth results, helping Jimmy John's expand from under 100 locations to thousands nationwide and leading GoToFoods to record-setting franchise sales, lease executions and store openings.

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Alisa P. Cleek

Chief Legal Officer

Alisa P. Cleek would love to tell you her job is easy. But the truth is there’s a lot of legal work that comes with franchising and operating restaurants all over the world. As Church’s Texas Chicken® General Counsel, Alisa handles all the nitty-gritty legal details of our global business including franchise law, acquisitions and divestitures, intellectual property, human resources, real estate and litigation.

She joins Church’s Texas Chicken®  from Hooters of America, where she was Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary and had oversight for legal, human resources, risk management, loss prevention, real estate, compliance and licensing. Alisa was previously an equity partner and practice group leader at the national law firm of Taylor, English Duma, LLP.  Alisa has almost 30 years of experience representing clients in the restaurant industry, spanning from fast food to fine dining, food distributors, and vendors.  She has been recognized nationally as a top litigator by Chambers USA. 

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Danton Nolan - Church's Chicken Franchise Team

Danton Nolan

EVP, Chief Financial Officer

Danton Nolan is an industry veteran with 15 years of franchised QSR experience and a proven record of accomplishment in financial leadership.

As EVP and Chief Financial Officer, his responsibilities include accounting, tax, business planning, investor and lending relations, as well as risk management. Danton works closely with the corporate and brand finance teams to deliver on strategic priorities as we add restaurants both domestically and internationally.

Danton joins Church’s Texas Chicken® from Inspire Brands, the second-largest restaurant company in the U.S., where he was the Senior Vice President, Company Finance, Capital, and Real Estate. While there, he led a team covering company operations finance, real estate and development finance, and capital and services transformation.

Danton earned an MBA from the University of Virginia and a BA, in European Economic Policy from Vanderbilt University.

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Ryan Hanawalt

SVP, Franchise Operations

Ryan brings over 16 years of QSR experience to the organization as a senior operations, finance and strategy professional with demonstrated execution across a broad range of discipline. He joins Church's Texas Chicken® from CKE, the parent company of Carl's Jr and Hardee's, as their former Vice President, Restaurant Excellence. Before that, he served as their Vice President, Strategy and Business Transformation. During Ryan's tenure with CKE, he has partnered with cross functional leaders and franchisees to develop bottoms-up business plans that resulted in hundreds of initiatives that drove sales, transactions and restaurant level margin. He also implemented numerous field facing technology solutions that increased productivity and helped support the domestic network that generated $3.0 billion in annual revenue and over $200 million in EBITDA across 40+ states.

Ryan graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder with a B.S.B.A in Finance.
when he isn't working, he enjoys travelling the world with his wife, Jennifer and son, Jackson. He is an avid sports fan and will watch any type of competition, specifically Colorado-based teams ( where he grew up). Ryan is a collector of red wine and since moving to Nashville, he has discovered and embraced the southern bourbon culture

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Michael Prince

CFE, Director of Franchise Development

Michael has over 20 years of experience in franchise sales and development, with a proven track record of successful collaboration with franchisors and franchise candidates in the process of exploring their next franchise opportunity.

 



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READY TO BLAZE YOUR OWN TRAIL?

We’re a bold and innovative brand that just keeps growing — and we want you to be part of it. Check out our territories map to find out where we’ve identified areas that are perfect for your Church's Texas Chicken® restaurant franchise. Then reach out to one of our franchise team members to get the conversation going.

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