ACG 101 Restaurant Panel

Seth Shaner is the President of Sunrise Restaurants, a subsidiary of WKS Restaurant Group. As President, Seth oversees all day-to-day operations for 121 Denny’s throughout the western half of the U.S. He brings more than 20 years of experience in operations, finance, marketing, and strategy among many different industries.

Prior to WKS, Seth spent 5 years at GE Capital working with more than 30 concepts to provide growth capital to large restaurant franchisees. He has worked in strategy consulting, venture capital, and private equity. He has also acquired or started two businesses along the way…one a failure and the other a success. Seth is a strategic thinker and thrives on helping his team grow and get what they want out of their careers.

He holds a B.S. in Finance from University of Utah. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids, exercising, and playing the cello.

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John Tilley is a seventh generation Angeleno and the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Jacmar Companies, LLC, a multi-business conglomerate that owns the majority interests in Shakey's Pizza, Tacos 1986 and Central Perk. Shakey’s is America’s first and oldest pizza franchise and has 56 family friendly locations throughout Southern California and does $53 million a year with its recipes in deep dish, classic thin crust pizzas, signature trademark Mojo potatoes, fried chicken, and is one of the last remaining “all you can eat” bunch of lunch buffets and redemption game operators. Through its foodservice distribution/logistics platform, Jacmar Foodservice Distribution, Jacmar sells groceries to Shakey’s Pizza, Islands Burgers & Fries, Joey’s and 400 other restaurant/food use establishments throughout Southern California. Jacmar produces over $200 million/year in gross revenue and has over $200 million in assets in real estate, marketable securities, and private equity investments.

John received his B.A. in International Relations-Global Business from the University of Southern California, Master's Degree in real estate development from the University of Southern California and completed the Owners/Presidents Program from Harvard Business School. He is also an active member in Young Presidents’ Organization Beverly Hills Chapter.

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Tom Holt is the founder and Chief Believer of Urbane Cafe. As a teenager, he was a professional motocross racer and raced throughout South America. He went to college at California Lutheran University and opened a trio of juice bars after graduation. He sold his juice bars to develop his own sandwich and salad concept when he realized there was a missing niche in the Ventura, California, restaurant scene. This prompted him to open the first Urbane Cafe.  He craved a great sandwich and salad, something delicious and healthy.  He has continued to develop the concept, and in 2017, the Panda Restaurant Group made a minority investment in its expansion.  In 2022, Urbane made the list by Restaurant Business news as Future 50 and will be opening their first units outside of California in 2023.  He serves on the State Board of the California Restaurant Association and is a member of Young Professionals Organization.

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Huntley Castner currently serves as the Co-President & Chief Financial Officer of Veggie Grill.  Established in 2006, Veggie Grill is the leading plant-based restaurant chain in the United States, with 34 restaurants across nine markets.  Huntley has been in the restaurant industry for roughly thirty years and previously held leadership positions at Farmer Boys (Strategic CFO), Lemonade Restaurant Group (Strategic CFO), Yogurtland (Chief Executive Officer), Panda Restaurant Group (VP Strategy & Finance), and WA-HA-KA Mexican Grill (Chief Executive Officer / Founder).  In addition to his restaurant experience, Huntley worked in management consulting (LEK Consulting, Swander Pace & Company, Kurt Salmon Associates) and investment banking (Credit Suisse First Boston).  He is an alum of both Stanford University and UCLA.  He paints, swims, runs, surfs and lives in Manhattan Beach, California with his wife of 28+ years. 

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David Bonrouhi is co-founder and Managing Director of Calabasas Capital, a boutique investment banking firm that provides M&A advisory and private equity and debt capital raising for lower mid-market companies. David has 25 years of investment banking and private equity experience. He began his investment banking career at Merrill Lynch in New York and later worked in private equity and venture capital for UnionBanCal Equities, where he co-managed Union Bank’s $200 million portfolio of private equity investments in middle market companies in a wide range of industries. David began his career as a CPA and tax consultant with Price Waterhouse in New York. David holds Series 7, 63 and 79 licenses with Fallbrook Capital Securities Corporation (Calabasas Capital is a dba of Fallbrook Capital). David is a licensed California CPA (inactive) and a licensed California real estate broker. David has an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management; and a Masters in Tax and a B.S. in Accounting from Miami of Ohio.

Jeff Bobrosky  is a partner with CohnReznick and has more than 25 years of accounting, auditing, and business advisory experience serving privately-held and public companies in the emerging and middle markets as well as mature companies in the Fortune 100 marketplace. Jeff serves as CohnReznick’s Hospitality Industry Practice Leader in the West Region and the Los Angeles office Technology Industry Practice Leader. Additionally, he is the Southern California Professional Practice Leader and Audit Division Leader for CohnReznick’s Woodland Hills and Los Angeles offices.

Jeff is an expert in process risk and internal controls under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404, having worked with both middle market and public large multinational companies. He has worked with clients in a variety of industries including hospitality (restaurants), entertainment (film, television, music, sports, and broadcasting), and technology and digital media.

Jeff began his career at a Big 4 firm in 1992. His career includes significant experience in public offerings and debt and equity financing. He has developed and conducted professional development sessions in the accounting and auditing fields. Jeff has been honored by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal as one of the Valley’s Top 40 Under 40, an award that recognizes the accomplishments and community contributions of the San Fernando Valley’s most influential business people. In addition, he was selected by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal to receive the 2014 Trusted Advisor Award in the practice of accounting, and received a second award in the category of Client Services for his consistently outstanding service.