Fast Casual Executive Summit

Fast Casual Hall of Fame honoring Geoff Alexander, Mark Brezinski, Darden Coors at Executive Summit

The 2026 Fast Casual Hall of Fame will recognize three restaurant executives whose leadership has shaped innovation, technology adoption and growth across the fast casual industry during the Fast Casual Executive Summit in Arlington, Texas.

July 29, 2026 by Cherryh Cansler — Publisher, FastCasual.com

Summarize with

For more than 25 years, fast casual concepts have led innovation in the restaurant industry, setting trends in store design, menu development, customer experience and technology. None of that would be possible without the leaders who built those brands from the ground up.

That's why the Fast Casual Hall of Fame exists — and this year's ceremony promises to be one to remember.

I'll be co-hosting the awards with David Moore of KPS Commercial Construction, at 6 p.m. at theFast Casual Executive Summit, Oct. 4-6 in Arlington, Texas. The Hall of Fame, following a keynote by Velvet Taco CEO Chris Schultz, will honor three individuals whose vision and leadership have driven the success of their brands, and of the fast casual segment as a whole.

This year's Honorees

Geoff Alexander, President & CEO, Wow Bao

Alexander has spent more than 30 years with Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, joining as a general manager in 1993, before working his way up through leadership roles at Frankie's Scaloppine, Vong's Thai Kitchen, Shaw's Crab House and Big Bowl, where he began his journey in the hospitality industry in 1993, working his way up through Big Bowl, an Asian concept restaurant in Chicago. He took over Wow Bao in 2009 and has led the brand's transformation from three brick-and-mortar locations into a national player with more than 600 virtual kitchens across the U.S. and Canada.

Under his leadership, Wow Bao introduced mobile and desktop ordering, self-service kiosks, loyalty programs, bicycle delivery and national shipping, and Alexander later expanded the brand's ghost-kitchen model rapidly during the pandemic, helping struggling restaurants and catering businesses use their existing kitchens to sell Wow Bao's Asian-inspired street food. He has also grown the brand's retail presence into more than 10,000 freezer doors nationwide through retailers including Walmart, Target, Kroger and Costco, and pushed Wow Bao into emerging technology with a Roblox metaverse partnership and a web3-integrated loyalty program. Alexanderhas been named to Fast Casuals Top 25 executive list, and Wow Bao was twice named "Brand of the Year" under his leadership.

Mark Brezinski, CEO & Author, CIG Concepts

Known as the father of the Dallas fast casual industry, Brezinski is a 45-year veteran of the restaurant industry who has created or co-created multiple nationally recognized restaurant concepts, Velvet Taco and Pei Wei Asian Diner. A graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, his career includes work with major players such as Yum Brands, and he's known for founding concepts that have earned "Hot Concept" and "Concepts of Tomorrow" honors, along with being named one of North Texas' Top 500 CEOs by D CEO Magazine in 2020.

In 2023, Brezinski published his memoir, FORKFIGHT!: Whisks, Risks, and Conflicts Behind the Restaurant Curtain, described by Simon & Schuster as one of the most candid restaurant-industry books since Kitchen Confidential. Most recently, Brezinski was named CEO of Culinary Innovations Restaurant Group, based in Starkville, Mississippi, effective January 2026, where he's working alongside founders Craig and Michele Fant to grow the group's Italian fast casual and full-service concepts nationally.

Darden Coors, CEO, Salad Collective

A fifth-generation member of the Coors family, Coors began her career as a transactional lawyer before moving in-house at several Coors family enterprises, including four years as assistant general counsel for Einstein Noah Restaurant Group — the role that first drew her into the fast casual industry. She stepped in as CEO of Salad Collective in 2013, after AC Restaurant Group, a Coors family company, acquired MAD Greens.

Under her leadership, MAD Greens tripled its footprint to 25 locations, and the company went on to acquire Snappy Salads in 2019, and Tokyo Joe's in 2022, building Salad Collective into a multi-brand, better-for-you platform with dozens of company-owned restaurants across Colorado, Texas and Arizona. Coors has been recognized for that growth with induction into the Titan 100 Hall of Fame and a Top 25 Executive honor at the Fast Casual Movers & Shakers Awards. She's also been vocal about building a women-led executive team and leading with empathy and resilience, drawing on her own experience as a single mother in shaping her leadership approach.

Together, this year's honorees represent decades of experience across menu innovation, technology adoption, brand storytelling and multi-concept growth — the kind of leadership that has defined fast casual's rise over the past quarter century.

Why Attend

The Hall of Fame presentation is one of the marquee moments of the Fast Casual Executive Summit, drawing operators, franchisees, vendors and industry leaders together to recognize the people shaping the segment's future. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from this year's honorees and network with the leaders driving innovation across fast casual brands nationwide.

Past Honorees

The Fast Casual Hall of Fame welcomed its first class of inductees in 2022. Past honorees include:

Class of 2025: Jim Mizes, Robin Robison and Jeff Sinelli.
Class of 2024: Scott Davis, Chris Newcomb and Marla Topliff.
Class of 2023: Laura Rea Dickey, Bill Phelps and Charles Watson.
Class of 2022: Carl Howard, Blaine Hurst and Carin Stutz.

Operations Marketing

Upcoming Events

Fast Casual Executive Summit

October 4-6, 2026 | Arlington, TX

The fast casual industry's BIGGEST event is back! Join industry leaders for game-changing ideas, powerful networking and serious fun.

View Agenda Register Now

About Cherryh Cansler

Cherryh Cansler is Publisher of FastCasual.com and Vice President of Connect Food. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

Connect with Cherryh: