Cinnabon

Leadership

Focus Brands makes some senior leadership changes

Kerri Christian will oversee marketing for the company’s specialty category; Tracey Young was named chief brand officer for Cinnabon; Jim Salerno was given the same title with Carvel, where Jessica Osborne will be VP of marketing.

Leadership

Focus Brands names Tim Voss chief technology officer

The longtime executive will oversee technology at the owner of Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, Jamba and other concepts.

Parent company Focus Brands is using cobranding as it looks for different types of locations for its mall-focused concepts.

The owner of Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s named Guillermo Cremer its new chief people officer and Joe Guith as head of its restaurant brands. Will Costello is a new procurement VP.

Jim Holthouser, CEO of the owner of Cinnabon and Jamba, discusses how his company plans to take on aggregators to own the customer relationship.

Melissa Smith was named chief people officer for Focus; Kendall Ware was named chief brand officer of Carvel and Cinnabon; and Alisa Gmelich was named chief brand officer for Auntie Anne’s.

The executive’s departure comes amid a host of changes at the Atlanta-based brand operator.

The company named Kristen Hartman president of its specialty brands, including Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon, while Erik Hess will oversee Moe’s, Schlotzsky’s and McAlister’s Deli.

He replaces Tim Muir, who was named chief sales officer at the parent company of Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon.

The former Hilton executive, who took the job two weeks before the pandemic hit, leans on his hotel experience, and sees parallels between the two industries.

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