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Garden Fresh Restaurants adds to leadership team

Garden Fresh Restaurants has hired Nicole Bushnell as CMO.

September 9, 2019

Garden Fresh Restaurants, owner of 97 Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants, has appointed Nicole Bushnell as CMO and John Gigliotti as vice president of information technology, according to a company press release.

Bushnell comes to the Garden Fresh team from Luna Grill restaurants, where she served as vice president of marketing for the last four years. She was responsible for brand strategy, ecommerce and loyalty platforms, creative and content direction, and product development. During her tenure, the chain grew from 18 to 51 locations in California and Texas, according to the release.

In her role at Garden Fresh, Bushnell will lead all brand and marketing activities across the country, positioning the company for growth and category development opportunities. Working in tandem with Gigliotti, her goal will be to guide the company toward a tech-forward marketing approach, including the launch of a point-of-sale integrated loyalty program.

Gigliotti will focus on enhancing Garden Fresh's overall tech stack, including the POS, network infrastructure and security posture. He will also build a 

JohnGigliotti is Garden Fresh's VP of information technology.

best-in-class technology team, according to the release. Relocating from Austin to San Diego, Gigliotti was most recently with 102-unit operator, Chuy's Opco, serving as IT director and overseeing a new integrated point-of-sale installation, developing internal resources to manage critical security standards and reworking the IT department to better align with company goals.

"We are excited to welcome Nicole and John to the Garden Fresh family," CEO John Haywood said in the release. "They both have great depth and expertise in evolving brands and operations through the integration of innovative solutions and technology."

Garden Fresh Restaurants serves more than 25 million guests each year.

Photos provided by Garden Fresh.