Advancements include four promotions and two new hires
SONIC Drive-In (NASDAQ: SONC) announced five new appointments to its officer ranks, including:
- Christie Hale as vice president of internal audit,
- Johnny Jones as vice president of development,
- Matt Schein as vice president of operations systems and services,
- Craig Tomlin as vice president and legal counsel,
- Scot Treadwell as vice president of construction, and
- Angela Wallace as vice president of tax.
Jones, Schein, Tomlin and Wallace are veterans of SONIC, with 20, 16, 10 and 10 years of experience with the company, respectively, in a variety of leadership roles. Treadwell is returning to SONIC after a two-year hiatus. Hale is new to SONIC, with more than 20 years of internal audit experience.
“Angela, Craig, Johnny and Matt have an impressive combined tenure of 56 years,” said Cliff Hudson, Sonic Corp CEO. “They are each highly respected and knowledgeable professionals who understand our business and have earned well-deserved reputations both here at SONIC headquarters and among our franchise community nationwide. Scot is no stranger to SONIC, having worked on our construction services team previously, and we are glad to welcome him back. We are also delighted to bring Christie on board, as her experience and restaurant background will be an asset to SONIC.”As SONIC’s new vice president of internal audit, Hale is responsible for the management of the internal audit function in providing independent objective assurance and consulting services designed to improve the company’s operations. She comes to SONIC from Ruby Tuesday, where she served as vice president-internal audit. Prior to her work at Ruby Tuesday, Hale spent 11 years in internal audit with Bloomin’ Brands, Inc.
In his new role of vice president of development, Jones is responsible for leadership of the franchise sales and construction teams while driving the market planning and strategy necessary to increase the company’s unit growth. Over his 20-year tenure, Jones has played a key role at SONIC and previously served as vice president of real estate and development and other leadership roles on the development team.
As vice president of operations services and systems, Schein is responsible for the planning, execution and implementation of operational processes and procedures for the entire SONIC system. Prior to this promotion, Schein spent 13 years working in various roles on the SONIC marketing team before shifting to operations in 2014. In his most recent role in operations technology, Schein built a new team to operationalize technology at more than 3,500 drive-in restaurants to deliver better guest service and achieve better sales and profits.
As vice president and legal counsel, Tomlin will be responsible for the legal aspects of significant contracts, including technology and other key vendors, as well as disputes, litigation and other complex legal issues. Previously, Tomlin served as assistant general counsel on SONIC’s legal team where his efforts related to key technology and vendor relationships critical to the company’s business initiatives.
Treadwell returns to SONIC to lead the construction and architecture and engineering teams. He previously served as SONIC’s director of construction services from 2007-2015. A 35-year industry veteran, Treadwell has a wealth of knowledge regarding construction as well as architecture and engineering.
As vice president of tax, Wallace is responsible for directing and coordinating tax strategy and administering tax affairs in compliance with all federal, state and local and international tax laws as well as financial reporting related to tax matters. She previously served as senior director of tax, where she identified and directed filing of tax refund claims among other critical tax initiatives. She is co-founder and charter member of the Oklahoma City Chapter of Tax Executives Institute and served as past chapter president as well as past national Tax Executives Institute board director.
To date, SONIC has 3,593 drive-ins located in 45 states and continues to grow rapidly in new markets. In 2017, SONIC opened 66 new drive-ins, making it the strongest pace in seven years.
