MEET OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

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.

Frank Costello joined Church’s Texas Chicken^® in 2022. He oversees multiple departments supporting the company’s domestic business, including franchisee development, real estate, construction and design.

With more than 25 years of experience in franchising, Frank has a passion for building and scaling successful franchise concepts for top-tier organizations as an executive leader and a former multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee.

Frank has worked in various sectors, including QSR, automotive and optical industries, with a proven track record of executing franchise excellence for legacy brands. His expertise includes implementing where-to-win market strategies and go-to-market footprint design, investor profile analytics, franchisor sector positioning, recruitment and real estate development.

Frank studied Criminal Justice and Business in college and later at the Advanced Entrepreneurial School of Business at Temple University. He currently sits on multiple boards – one of which is the Titus School of Franchising at Palm Beach Atlantic University, where he mentors future leaders in franchising.

Navin Sharma is responsible for providing a strategic vision for the brand and creatively leading marketing ideation, brand execution and digital prowess across the organization to drive brand awareness and positioning, resulting in continued growth and stronger franchise relationships.

Prior to Church’s Texas Chicken®, Sharma was a founding partner at Datacraft Advisors, a specialized marketing and digital advisory firm. Sharma also spent many years of his career in the restaurant industry having served as the Chief Commercial Services Officer at Inspire Brands, Inc. and as the SVP of Insights, Analytics, and Digital at Arby’s Restaurant Group.

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. 

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.

At Church’s Texas Chicken^® and Texas Chicken^®, Karen J. Viera leads all human resource functions, including internal communications.

Karen has more than 20 years of experience in HR senior-level positions. She has a passion for people and serves as president of the Church’s^® Partners Foundation, a charitable organization providing support to company and franchise hourly employees. Karen also leads the People Excellence Committee in partnership with our franchisees.

Karen holds an MS in Human Resource Management from Florida International University and a BA focused on Human Resources from Trinity International University. She is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional, DiSC Certified Training Instructor, and holds a Senior Professional Human Resources Management Certification. Karen is currently serving her fourth-term appointment by Georgia’s Governor to the State Workforce Development Board and is Chair of the Adult and Dislocated Workers Committee for the State of Georgia. She was named one of the Georgia Titan 100 C-Suite leaders in 2022 and 2023.

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

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.