Tenured Executive Committee at Atlanta-based restaurant chain expands to ten with addition of five.
Chick-fil-A has five new members on its Executive Committee. They join Dan Cathy, Donald “Bubba” Cathy, Tim Tassopoulos, Steve Robinson, and Buck McCabe, who have comprised Chick-fil-A’s Executive Committee for more than 19 years. The new members of the company’s Executive Committee are: Jon Bridges, Brent Ragsdale, Lynn Chastain, Andrew Cathy and Cliff Robinson. All have been promoted to senior vice president.
Bridges, 51, joined Chick-fil-A in 1992. He also assumes the role of chief marketing officer, previously held by Steve Robinson, who helmed the marketing department for more than 30 years. Robinson will remain on the Executive Committee in an advisory role through 2015, at which time, he will retire. Bridges began his career at Andersen Consulting, and in 1992 joined Chick-fil-A, Inc. in the Information Technology group. He was named chief information officer, a position he held for 11 years, and five years ago was named vice president of customer experience. He currently serves on the board of directors for City of Refuge, a non-profit working to transform the challenged Vine City community of Atlanta. A graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program, Bridges also earned a Master of Science in Marketing from Georgia State University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia. He is married to Amy, and they have two daughters.
Ragsdale, 48, assumes the role of chief financial officer, previously held by Buck McCabe, who will remain on the Executive Committee in an advisory role through 2015, at which time he will retire. Ragsdale began working at Chick-fil-A as a restaurant team member in high school. In 1990, he joined Chick-fil-A, Inc. as a franchisee consultant. He later moved to the financial services department and held multiple leadership roles, most recently vice president and chief accounting officer. He currently serves on the board of visitors for Berry College and the boards of directors for Southwest Christian Care, Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program, holds a Master of Business Administration from Mercer University and a bachelor’s degree in business from Berry College. He is married to GiGi, and they have three children.
Chastain, 59, joins the Executive Committee as senior vice president and general counsel. Chastain began her career as a commercial real estate attorney at Troutman Sanders in Atlanta and joined Chick-fil-A in 1990 as a staff attorney. She held multiple leadership roles, including vice president and assistant general counsel, before being named general counsel in August 2013. She serves on the Executive Committee of Junior Achievement of Georgia and is chairman of the board for The Kenya Project, a non-profit working to improve the lives of children in Kenya. Chastain is a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, and she holds a Master of Education in Counseling from the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University. She and her husband Terry have three children and two grandchildren.
Andrew Cathy, 36, joined Chick-fil-A in 2005. He assumes the role of senior vice president and chief people officer, overseeing recruitment, selection, and cultivation of corporate staff and franchised restaurant owners. Cathy began his career teaching business courses and coaching football and track at Landmark Christian High School. He later joined the family business as a franchised restaurant operator. After 18 months of running his own Chick-fil-A restaurant, Cathy joined Chick-fil-A, Inc. in its west coast office as a franchisee consultant. Since moving to the Atlanta headquarters, he has held jobs of increasing responsibility, most recently as the vice president of people. He serves on the board of directors for Pinewood Atlanta Studios and board of trustees for Point University. Cathy holds a bachelor’s degree in business education from University of Georgia. He is married to Mandy, and they have two children.
Cliff Robinson, 47, is senior vice president of field operations, which supports all Chick-fil-A restaurants nationwide. Robinson began working for Chick-fil-A in high school as a team member in his father’s Chick-fil-A restaurant. In 1990, he joined Chick-fil-A as a marketing consultant and later joined the field operations department as a franchisee consultant. After holding multiple leadership positions in both field operations and marketing, he served as vice president of field operations for six years before being named senior vice president. Robinson serves on the board of directors for Providence Christian Academy and Care for AIDS, and is an elder at North Point Community Church. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program, holds a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Oglethorpe University. He and his wife Stacy have three children.
“Longevity in leadership has always been one of our secret ingredients,” said Dan Cathy, president and CEO. “Chick-fil-A is in the rare and wonderful position of having senior leaders who helped grow this business with care and confidence. They have mentored a new generation of leaders, and I am especially grateful to Steve Robinson and Buck McCabe, for their loyalty, wisdom and humble service. They have played a significant part in growing one restaurant into a business of more than 1,850 restaurants that have had 47 consecutive years of sales growth. As we position Chick-fil-A for an even stronger future, we will be strengthened by the wisdom of the leaders who got us here. They are passing the torch to a new generation of leadership who are well-prepared to foster growth of a relevant brand in a changing world. They are individuals with character, fortitude and unparalleled business acumen — our best is yet to come.”
