Making Tasti D-Lite the number one good-for-you frozen dessert in the world.
A phenomenal concept. With a New York attitude and the flavor of fun.
Our new management team is committed to making Tasti D-Lite a celebration of life and health. We plan to grow Tasti D-Lite to 500 retail centers in just five years. Our executive team’s extraordinary breadth and depth of experience, both in franchising and the frozen dessert sector, will take us there.
The visionary at the top
Our Chairman James Amos, Jr., acquired Tasti D-Lite in 2007 with New York-based private equity firm Snow Phipps Group. Amos has built Tasti D-Lite into a global brand with 55 centers in the United States and four international locations. The international locations are in Australia, Panama, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Amos acquired Planet Smoothie in November 2011, more than doubling the enterprise by adding 99 smoothie franchise stores.
In February of 2012, Amos was named to the International Franchise Association Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame award is the most prestigious award presented by the IFA and is given to a member who honorably represents franchising and has helped make enormous strides in the franchising community.
Before Tasti D-Lite, Amos was the CEO of Mailboxes, Etc., the world’s largest non-food franchise, which is now the UPS Store. He grew MBE from 2,500 to 4,000 locations in 80 countries, making it the world’s largest and fastest-growing franchisor of retail business, communication and postal service centers. Amos was Chairman of the IFA in 2001, and gained experience in the frozen dessert category through building a 2,500 store network for “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt!”
His goal: To make Tasti D-Lite the number one good-for-you frozen dessert in the world. We trust him to do it.
A few more tasti notes about Jim:
Chairman Emeritus, Mail Boxes Etc.
Highly decorated Vietnam veteran
Who’s Who of Writers International
Wrote three bestsellers
Author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Franchising (Penguin)
Favorite Tasti flavor: Peanut Butter
The guy who keeps us all in line
Our President and CEO, Peter Holt, brings over 20 years of international franchising experience to Tasti D-Lite. He has a sharp eye for business growth opportunities, most recently working with Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based private equity fund with more than $1.5 billion of capital under management, on the creation of a winning franchise portfolio. Peter has seen the franchise business from all sides, starting with the International Franchise Association, the oldest and largest trade association in the world serving the interests of businesses that franchise.
Then, working alongside Jim, he headed up franchise sales and development for Mail Boxes Etc., and as vice president for "I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt!", led the company’s international expansion.
Some tasti details about Peter:
Writes and lectures extensively on franchising
Former chairman, IFA International Affairs Network
Former chairman, IFA Global Marketing Group
Favorite Tasti flavor: Cake Batter
Meet the Rest of the Tasti D-Lite Executive Team
Tasti D-Lite’s team of franchising experts has a combined 246 years of industry experience … and all that expertise is dedicated to making New York’s favorite great-tasting, good-for-you dessert better than ever and available worldwide.
Chief Financial Officer - Pat Fox
Upon earning a degree in accounting from Duke University in 1965, he joined General Electric Company’s Financial Management Program, progressing through a series of increasingly responsible positions in the power generation and AC motor divisions during a twenty-year GE career. In 1985 he was named Vice President, Finance and Group Controller for Schrader Automotive, Inc., a subsidiary of Arvin Industries, with full financial responsibility for a US-based automotive parts company and six international subsidiaries.
From 1990 to 1995, he held the position of Vice President, Finance and Administration for Berol USA, an office products manufacturer, later becoming Chief Financial Officer for golf products distributor Datrek Miller International until 2005. Following two years as Vice President, Finance at Sona International Corporation, he joined Tasti D-Lite as Controller in October, 2007, and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in October, 2009.
Vice President of Marketing – Donna Smith
Since the time she was 10 years old and sold her homemade potholders door-to-door, Donna has been interested in consumer behavior and what factors influenced the buying decision. After receiving her MBA from Indiana University, and practicing her marketing craft for the past 16 years, she believes that she is just now starting to figure it out! Strong retail brands like Arby’s, La-Z-Boy and Oreck are included in her marketing portfolio, as is a stint with the Indiana-based horse track then owned by Churchill Downs, Hoosier Park, where she was Vice President of Marketing and a Company Officer.
Donna specializes in the development of Local Store Marketing programs and improving unit metrics, and holds several distinctions for both her educational and marketing achievements.
Vice President of Global Development – Kurt Ullman
Kurt has 20 years experience in international and domestic franchise development and management. As a management consultant with Edwards Global Services, Kurt provided internationally-focused advisory, business development and project management services to franchise companies in the restaurant, transportation, business services, retail, consumer services, automotive and energy sectors. Kurt was Executive Director of International Development at Mail Boxes Etc./The UPS Store where he served in international roles from 1993 to 2004.
Kurt played a significant role in MBE’s growth to 1,200 units in over 40 countries. He has also been involved in the inbound and early stage development of two foreign franchise businesses entering the U.S. Kurt has been awarded the professional designation of Certified Franchise Executive by the International Franchise Association and has been appointed to the District Export Council for the State of Tennessee.
Vice President of Technology –BJ Emerson
BJ Emerson is an award winning social technology executive who has a long and consistent track record of innovation and leadership within the organizations he serves. BJ's unique perspective comes in part from spearheading the integration of the Tasti D-Lite brand experience with online communities and was largely responsible for taking the brand from a place of social negligence to social prominence in just a few short years. He has appeared on CNBC, has been quoted in The New York Times, Reuters, Inc magazine, Entrepreneur, and AdAge as well as numerous other publications including the cover Hospitality Technology magazine.
His revolutionary use of mobile coupons on Twitter in 2009 earned Tasti D-Lite a spot in Twitter’s Business 101 Case Studies which ultimately led to invitations for Tasti D-Lite to be launch partners with business products for companies such as Foursquare and Google. Considered a social loyalty pioneer in the industry, in 2010 he led the deployment of the first ever loyalty platform to feature an integration with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare which has been recognized with a variety of industry awards. BJ was once named in Mashable’s Top 40 Brands on Twitter and the People Behind Them and his projects have been featured as case studies in 7 different books published in 2011. BJ also provided the foreword to Location Based Marketing for Dummies.
Vice President of Manufacturing – David Neely
David Neely has almost 20 years of experience. From 1989–1998 he worked with Brice Foods where he served as Vice President of Manufacturing. He produced a wide variety of frozen yogurt and ice cream products for Brice Foods-owned ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt’. He reduced both product losses and manufacturing costs for the company increased productivity by 100% in his first two years with the company.
General Counsel – Grayson Brown, Esq., MBA
Grayson is a versatile licensed attorney with a Master’s in business administration. He received his JD and MBA from Regent University in Virginia Beach and is founder of his own law firm representing various for-profit and not-for-profit businesses. Prior to joining the Tasti D-Lite team, Grayson served as corporate counsel for Sona MedSpa, a medical spa franchisor. Since coming to Tasti D-Lite, Grayson’s responsibility has grown beyond being our senior legal officer to also managing the people services and risk management disciplines.
