George Wooten
Divisional Chief for Buffet
Pete Pascuzzi
Divisional Chief for Ryan's
Restaurant pros George Wooten and Pete Pascuzzi, who have been spearheading re-concepting efforts across the enterprise in executive leadership capacities, will be assuming new roles as Divisional Chiefs for the Buffet and Ryan’s brands, respectively, and both will report to COO Greg Graber.
“Our teams have been hard at work to ensure the success of the Main Street and Ryan’s Southern Family Goodness initiatives in our test markets and the results have been impressive. From double digit sales increases to dramatic jumps in guest perception scores, we know we have tapped into something pretty special,” said Anthony Wedo, CEO for Ovation Brands.
“Both of these reinventions are critical to our overall success and both deserve dedicated leadership to ensure continued success and the very highest levels of operational execution. George and Pete have been serving on the forefront of these efforts since they joined the team and both have demonstrated leadership and results. They are the right operators to help me fast track the rollout of reinvention in both the Buffets and Ryan’s businesses.”
Pascuzzi has served as Vice President of Operations for Ryan’s restaurants in West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Pennsylvania for the past year. He holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Missouri.
Wooten joined Ovation Brands in October of last year as the senior vice president of operations and quickly assumed the development of the company’s new, comprehensive hospitality training protocol with a focus on the re-concept markets. He is a graduate of California Coast University.
“These moves in leadership put the ultimate operations decision maker closer to the action and will help drive urgency and the continued change necessary to support our successful reinvention,” Wedo said.