IFA ELECTS EIGHT NEW BOARD MEMBERS

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 – Eight leading franchise professionals have been elected to the International Franchise Association Board of Directors. The newly-elected board members will assume their positions at the conclusion of the 59th IFA Annual Convention in Las Vegas on Feb 27, 2019.

"IFA’s efforts to promote and strengthen franchising will benefit due to these highly-respected individuals’ expertise within the sector,” said IFA Chair and President, Franchising, Owner Services and MxM Select Brands, North America, Marriott International Liam Brown,

The new IFA directors include:

• Sam Ballas, CFE, President/CEO, East Coast Wings
• Troy Dahl, Vice President, Corporate Accounts, Ecolab
• Steve Hockett, CEO, Great Clips
• David Humphrey, CEO, ECP-PF Holdings
• Dan Monaghan, Managing Partner, Clear Summit Group
• Joel Neuman, VP, Legal and Industry Affairs, Coca-Cola
• Darren Rebelez, President, IHOP
• Mary Kay Wegner, President, Franchise Services Group, ServiceMaster

Sam Ballas, CFE

Sam G. Ballas, CFE, is CEO, President, and Founder of East Coast Wings + Grill. Combining a meticulous appreciation and understanding of unit-level economics with a data-driven mindset zeroed-in on EBITDA, Sam is building East Coast’s empire past the 50-unit mark despite immense competition in the wings and casual-dining space. Naturally a “numbers guy”, Sam was brought up in a restaurateur family and dabbled with investment banking, estate planning, and commercial real estate all before he began building East Coast Wings. He has been published in national restaurant and franchising trade publications, and under his leadership, ECW has won several awards and accolades including Top 50 Best by Franchise Business Review, Top 200+ by Franchise Times and Top 500 by Entrepreneur Magazine. Sam graduated from Lees-McRae College and concluded his studies at UNC Charlotte.

Troy Dahl

Troy Dahl is Vice President, Corporate Accounts, North America for Ecolab Inc., the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that provide and protect clean water, safe food, abundant energy and healthy environments. Ecolab’s 40,000 employees deliver comprehensive programs and services to the food, energy, healthcare, industrial and hospitality markets in more than 160 countries. In his current role, Troy is responsible for leading the Institutional Corporate Accounts team in North America. In this role, Troy leads a team of over 80 Corporate Account Managers across the US and Canada. Responsibilities include supporting many of the most successful national and global brands in the hospitality and healthcare Industries. Troy began his career with Ecolab in 1991 as a Territory Manager. Since then he has held a number of roles in Field Sales and Global & Corporate Account organizations such as Sales Development Manager, District manager, Corporate Account Manager, Assistant Vice President Corporate Accounts, Assistant Vice President Global Accounts, Assistant Vice president Area Sales, Regional Vice President Field Sales and most recently Vice President Global Accounts - Foodservice.

Steve Hockett

Steve Hockett has served in various roles with Great Clips, Inc. beginning in 1988 as a franchisee. He was hired by Great Clips, Inc. in 1993 as a marketing manager, then moved on to become regional director and vice president of operations before leaving Great Clips to pursue other opportunities. He served as president of FranChoice, Inc. and then Rapid Refill Corp. before returning to Great Clips in 2008 as vice president of operations. Since returning to Great Clips, Steve has contributed to growing the brand from 2,700 salons to over 4,300 salons with 57 consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth and 13 consecutive years of comparable customer count growth. 

On January 1, 2018 Steve was promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Minnesota-based Great Clips, Inc. Steve's experience in franchising and his love for the Great Clips brand has contributed to its success as the world's largest salon brand with locations in more than 180 markets across the United States and Canada.

Steve grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota. He majored in history at the University of South Dakota and earned his MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

David Humphrey

David Humphrey is CEO of ECP-PF Holdings, a large Planet Fitness franchisee which operates more than 70 locations across the US and Canada.  Humphrey serves as Chair of the Board of Managers for Massage Heights, the therapeutic massage and facial services franchise. He served as CEO of Massage Envy Spa, nearly doubling both their locations and their membership base in his three years and helped turn around a billion-dollar distributor of natural foods and organic products, Tree of Life.  He spent 18 years in the global conglomerate Philips Electronics, where he ran a division in Latin America and led its worldwide e-business and consumer relationship marketing activities.  More recently, as CEO of DTH Capital Ventures, he worked with several private equity firms on due diligence projects, consulted with several franchise brands, and served on several corporate Boards.

Dan Monaghan

Dan’s entre into the world of entrepreneurship began at the age of 19 when he became a franchisee with Dickie Dee – an ice cream bicycle operation in Canada.  He used the profits from this franchise business to put himself through university at Sir Wilfred Laurier University.  With several entrepreneurial successes behind him, and a national best-selling book to his credit (Why Not Me?), Dan founded WSI at the age of 27.  Over the last 23 years, WSI has grown to become the largest digital marketing franchise organization in the world.  WSI’s latest book, Digital Minds, was released in 2013 and quickly achieved best seller status.  Now in its second edition, it is now available in 4 languages and is one of the top rated Digital Marketing books available through Amazon. 

In 2006 Dan founded Clear Summit Group (CSG), a private equity firm which invests in early-stage high growth franchise and technology companies.  In addition to Dan’s ongoing role with WSI, the CSG portfolio includes Tutor Doctor (world leader in in-home education), Qualicare (specializing in case managed medical home care), Recruiting In Motion (staffing and recruitment) and Fuzz Wax Bar (wax salons).  Today the CSG portfolio of companies includes over 1000 franchise locations in countries around the world. 

Dan is passionate about education and lectures on franchising at Cornell and Georgetown Universities.  He sits on the board of governors of the Institute of Certified Franchise Executives (ICFE) and is the Vice Chair of the IFA Foundation.  He is also the founder of "Make Child Poverty History", a world-wide outreach program operated in partnership with World Vision.

Joel Neuman

Joel Neuman is the Vice President, Legal and Industry Affairs for Coca-Cola North America, Foodservice & On‐Premise Division.    Joel joined The Coca‐Cola Company in 1997 as Litigation Counsel and became Executive Counsel in  2001.    Starting in 2003, Joel has had a variety of positions leading teams in Coca‐Cola North America Legal responsible for Foodservice & On‐Premise, National Retail Sales, Commercial Leadership and US Trademarks.  Prior to joining The Coca‐Cola Company, Joel was a Partner in the Chicago law firm of Sachnoff & Weaver (now part of the national law firm Reed & Smith) where he concentrated in complex commercial litigation.  In 1996 and 1997, Joel taught Antitrust Law as an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. 

Joel received his JD with Honors from the University of Chicago Law School and his BA Degree with Honors from the University of Wisconsin‐Madison.  Following law school, Joel was a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Judge Joel M. Flaum on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.  Joel has served as the president of the Boards of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, Conexx, the American‐Israel Business Connector, and the Georgia Justice Project.  Joel currently serves on the Boards of the Atlanta Bar Foundation, Conexx, the Georgia Justice Project, the ADL, and will soon join the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation as a Trustee in 2019.  Joel resides in Brookhaven, Georgia with his wife, Amy, and has two adult children, Jeremy and Rebecca. 

Darren Rebelez

Darren Rebelez currently serves as President of the iconic IHOP Restaurant brand.  IHOP is the leading Family Dining restaurant brand with over 1700 restaurants in the US and several countries around the world.  IHOP is a part of Dine Brands Global (NYSE: DIN), one of the largest full-service restaurant companies in the world.

Darren also serves on the Board of Directors of Torchmark Corporation, where he is the chair of the compensation committee.  Torchmark (NYSE: TMK) is a financial services holding company specializing in life and supplemental health insurance for middle-income Americans, marketed through multiple distribution channels including direct response and exclusive and independent insurance agencies.

Darren, a retailing and restaurant industry veteran, is the former executive vice president and chief operating officer for 7-Eleven, Inc. 7-Eleven is the world's largest convenience store chain with more than 52,000 stores in 16 countries, of which more than 10,200 are in North America.  He also held leadership positions at ExxonMobil Corporation.

Prior to his civilian career, Rebelez was an Army Ranger and Gulf War veteran.  A native of San Diego, he is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Area Studies.  He went on to also earn an MBA from the University of Houston.

Outside of work, Darren is on the advisory board of the Children of Fallen Patriots organization which provides college scholarships to children who have lost a parent in the War on Terror.

Mary Kay Wegner

Mary Kay Wegner was named president of the ServiceMaster Franchise Services Group in 2016. The Franchise Services Group consists of industry-leading franchise businesses including AmeriSpec, Furniture Medic, Merry Maids, ServiceMaster Clean and ServiceMaster Restore. The Franchise Services Group delivers over $2.5 billion in customer-level revenue and supports more than 5,000 independently owned franchise locations with more than 34,000 employees operating in all 50 states and 11 countries.

Wegner has also served as senior vice president of supply management for ServiceMaster, where she was responsible for $1.3 billion in direct and indirect products over sourcing, real estate and fleet operations. In this role, she led efforts to categorize and analyze purchasing patterns, increase supplier quality, improve supplier diversity and deliver greater value to the company, as well as managed one of the largest commercial fleets in the United States.

Previously, Wegner served as director of North American fleet operations for Coca-Cola Enterprises, and she spent eight years in a variety of leadership positions in fleet, logistics and strategic sourcing at Waste Management, Inc.

Wegner has a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and operations analysis from the United States Naval Academy and a master's degree in logistics engineering from National University in California. During her seven years of active duty, Wegner worked in aviation maintenance, communication and administration for a Navy anti-submarine squadron, and taught calculus and logistics at the United States Naval Academy.