Award Recognizes Women in Leadership Positions across North Texas
The Dallas Business Journal announced the honorees for the 2015 Women in Technology Awards, naming Laura Rea Dickey, CIO of Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., as one of 20 influential women in technology leadership positions who received the award.
The second annual signature program, presented by the Dallas Business Journal, recognizes women for their leadership, technical prowess, advocacy and entrepreneurial spirit in technology careers.
Laura provides strategic direction for the Dickey’s brand overseeing the IT and software development team as well as managing business partners such as iOLAP and Yellowfin. Since joining the company in 2008, Laura has been instrumental in creating the IT and software development strategy that assists the company with obtaining analytical data that in turn impacts sales and business decisions. She specializes in the intersection of data, information technology and marketing, turning data insights into brand and business solutions.
Most recently, Laura has overseen and managed the combination of barbecue and Big Data to better understand the customer and to drive restaurant performance. The result is a platform dubbed Smoke Stack. The cutting-edge technology was developed under Laura’s direction to maintain a competitive edge in the ever-growing fast-casual restaurant space.
Laura has helped guide the company through its explosive growth, going from 151 stores in 2012 to more than 500 stores in 2015. The company plans to get to 750 units and expand internationally over the next several years.
In addition to her contributions as an industry professional, Laura is a board member for Dickey’s charitable foundation, Barbecue, Boots & Badges.
The women will be honored at a cocktail reception Oct. 1 at The Empire Room.
Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., the nation’s largest barbecue chain was founded in 1941 by Travis Dickey with the goal of authentic slow smoked barbecue. Today, all meats are still slow smoked on-site in each restaurant living up to the company tagline, “We Speak Barbecue.” The Dallas-based family-run barbecue franchise offers a quality selection of signature meats, home style sides, tangy barbecue sauce and free kids’ meals every Sunday. The fast-casual concept has expanded to over 500 locations in 43 states. This year Dickey’s Barbecue was recognized for the third year by Nation’s Restaurant News as a “Top 10 Growth Chain” and by Technomic as the “Fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country.” For more information, visit www.dickeys.com or for barbecue franchise opportunities call 866.340.6188.
