Blain Shortreed, Ascent Hospitality Management
Ascent Hospitality Management, the owner of Perkins and Huddle House, has hired Blain Shortreed as COO. Shortreed was most recently CEO of Long John Silver’s, where he spent more than four years. Before that, he worked for more than 14 years with Yum Brands, where he was VP of operations for Pizza Hut, among other roles. At Ascent, he’ll be in charge of operations at both of its brands.
Chef Joel Reynders was named vice president of culinary and corporate executive chef at Another Broken Egg Café. Reynders spent more than a decade working with Darden Restaurants’ Smokey Bones, LongHorn Steakhouse and Red Lobster brands. He also served in vice president of culinary and executive chef positions at Bar Louie and Tijuana Flats, and was director of culinary at Ruby Tuesday.
Katie Laudick has been promoted to chief people officer at Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. She began working with the company as a server at age 20 and later transitioned to the home office as a human resources intern, launching a career that spanned more than two decades, moving into key leadership roles. As chief people officer, she will oversee training and spearhead recruitment and retention.
David McInerney, Baldor Specialty Foods
Baldor Specialty Foods named David McInerney its new president. McInerney, former CEO and co-founder of FreshDirect, brings over 30 years of experience in food retailing, operations and supply chain innovation to the position. Baldor is a distributor of fresh produce and specialty foods to restaurants in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
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