Chequan Lewis’s first experience with Pizza Hut occurred as a child through their Book It! Program, which since 1984 has encouraged reading in schools nationwide by rewarding students who meet their reading goals with a free personal pizza. Now, Lewis is the brand's first chief equity officer.

After the drama of his Kickstarter campaign, the first time Chef Yia Vang laid eyes on the building which would become his first-ever, brick-and-mortar restaurant, he thought to himself, “eh.”

Adenah Bayoh was among the youngest IHOP franchisees at 27. She now wants to serve as a mentor, particularly for young people of color and women in the foodservice industry.

As if operating multiple restaurant concepts in the Twin Cities wasn’t enough, Justin Sutherland has his own show on TruTV called “Fast Foodies” and is planning to launch a multi-unit national chain soon.

Michele Henry remembers exactly where she was sitting when she signed the agreement to sell Primp, a cheap-chic boutique she founded in 2010 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her signature was penned at 10:30 a.m. on December 14, 2018, and just five minutes later, appeared again on a lease for a space in Edina’s Galleria to open her next concept, an open-air facial brand called The Face Foundrie.

As HOA Brands’ first chief people officer, Cheryl Whiting-Kish is shining a spotlight on the “amazing stories of these powerful women that have worn the orange shorts,” which she estimates totals about 400,000 women in nearly four decades. And Whiting-Kish would know, because she started out as a Hooters Girl herself.

At 16, Stacy Kwon’s family immigrated from South Korea to Houston, where they slept in the storage room of a corner store. Now, she’s CEO of Snowfox, a sushi franchise with more than 1,300 full-service kiosks in 38 states and counting.

Yavonne Sarber has always had a talent for taking care of people, so a career in hospitality seemed a natural direction to take—but her journey to creating and scaling Agave & Rye to 16 locations, plus launching a myriad of other concepts under EPIC Brands, took an untraditional route.

From grilling strawberries as a kid to connecting over a meal with his maternal grandmother (who only spoke Italian) for the first time, Chef Jeremy Ford’s passion for food transcends the ordinary. Now, his restaurant Stubborn Seed is earning Michelin stars and hearts in Miami.