2021 Top Women in Restaurant Technology
“HT’s Top Women in Restaurant Technology program recognizes the accomplishments of these incredible tech professionals who help shatter the glass ceiling every day, inspiring an ever-increasing number of women and minorities to become a part of the trailblazing work that continues to reimagine the restaurant technology industry,” said Abigail Lorden, vice president and publisher of Hospitality Technology.
Now in its fifth year, the Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards honors outstanding women from both restaurants and technology suppliers in the following categories:
Rising Star: Presented to women from any level of an organization with less than five years' experience in the industry, who have demonstrated leadership and are already making a mark in foodservice technology at an early stage in their careers.
Innovator: Presented to women who are forward thinkers and who have executed on tools and strategy to transform the foodservice technology space in a positive manner by creating or deploying emerging technologies that reimagine how things are done while paving the way for future technologies.
Lifetime Achievement: This award is presented in recognition of a lifetime (no less than 15 years) of service and accomplishments in the foodservice technology industry. We seek to honor women who have had an impact on the foodservice technology industry as well as their colleagues and industry peers through enthusiasm, mentorship and commitment, while also showing how technologies can provide new ways of doing things.
The winners of the 2021 Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards are:
Rising Star
- Brandy Anderson, Vice President of Operations, Valyant AI
- Sheryl D. Hoskins, GM of Global Hospitality, Lightspeed
- Victoria McCormick, Database Administrator, Jersey Mike’s Subs
Innovator
- Kathy Alcaras, Director, Information Technology, Eureka! Restaurant Group
- Tana Davila, Chief Marketing Officer, P.F. Chang’s
- Robyn Kesler, Sr. Director of Information Technology, Tupelo Honey Cafe
- Sakshi Tulsian, Co-Founder, POSist
- Mingming Zhang, Head of Data Science, Wisely
Lifetime Achievement
- Johanna Miner, IT Manager, Fazoli’s System Management, LLC
- Jerilyn Quintanilla, Director, Restaurant Systems, Qdoba Mexican Eats
2021 Industry Heroes
“HT’s Industry Heroes Awards acknowledge members of our restaurant technology community who truly went above and beyond in the face of closed dining rooms and lockdowns, pivoting to off-prem and digital solutions to serve customers, support employees, and feed communities in need,” said Lorden. The Industry Heroes Awards recognize both restaurants and technology suppliers for exemplary contributions to the restaurant industry in 2020.
The winners of the 2021 Industry Heroes Awards are:
CMX. CMX launched its COVID-19 Response, Reopening & Recovery Kit, providing fast-casual and quick-serve restaurants with out-of-the-box templates for Employee Wellness Checks, Health and Sanitation Shift Logs, COVID-19 Related Incident Reporting, and Reopening Checklists.
Concept Entertainment Group. When Concept Entertainment Group halted dive-in service at its Thirsty Lion locations due to the pandemic, it pivoted to create an online food hall concept called Central Kitchen to house online dining concepts of different genres integrated within Thirsty Lion’s kitchens — allowing customers to order a variety of food via third-party delivery and pickup.
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit. Dickey’s BBQ Pit optimized its e-commerce site for mobile users, contributing to an immediate 42% increase in digital sales — and restructured two franchisee-facing resources to give franchisees improved access to hundreds of resources directly from their mobile devices.
Fazoli’s. Fazoli’s saw record-breaking sales and traffic in 2020 thanks to a streamlined pivot to drive-thru and curbside and to contactless payments — as well as providing a special promotion to restaurant industry workers and providing meals to essential workers from hospital personnel to police and fire departments.
Jersey Mike’s Franchise Systems, Inc. Jersey Mike’s robust e-commerce platform allowed it to move seamlessly to accommodate increased online orders and third-party and native delivery — while, early on, to provide financial relief to customers, the brand offered several discounted promotions and also donated more than $4.5 million to Feeding America.
OneDine. OneDine offered its Park – Order – Pay product to thousands of restaurants, no matter the size, location, or menu, at no cost and no obligation, enabling restaurants to turn their parking spaces into revenue-generating real estate via large QR codes printed on free-standing signs, often onboarding in less than 72 hours.
Punchh. Punchh’s customer loyalty and engagement solutions enabled restaurant brands to foster and maintain vital connections with their guests in the middle of a pandemic, driving frequency and sales for its customers, and delaying billing and waiving fees in some cases to help brands stay profitable while adjusting their services to the changing times.
Revel Systems. Revel debuted a new standalone online ordering solution, Revel Go, that could be added to a business’s operations regardless of their POS solution, and also created the Revel Relief Program, allocating $1 million in relief funding for clients experiencing excessive hardship due to COVID-19.
Top Women in Restaurant Technology and Industry Heroes winners were chosen by Hospitality Technology magazine and members of its Research Advisory Board. Winners will be profiled in the Summer 2021 issue of Hospitality Technology magazine and in digital profiles on www.hospitalitytech.com.
About Hospitality Technology
Hospitality Technology (HT) is the only publication dedicated to covering the role of information technology in improving business performance for both hotel and restaurant operators. The Hospitality Technology editorial portfolio includes: a print publication that publishes four times annually and reaches more than 16,000 hospitality industry executives, three networking and educational events (MURTEC, HT-NEXT and MURTEC Executive Summit), a comprehensive website, e-newsletters, web seminars, and several exclusive annual reports and studies. Hospitality Technology is the parent brand of the Restaurant Technology Network (www.restauranttechnologynetwork.com), a membership community of restaurants and suppliers working together to solve industry challenges by shaping standards and sharing best practices. Visit Hospitality Technology online at www.hospitalitytech.com. Hospitality Technology is published by EnsembleIQ, headquartered in Chicago.
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