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Women Leaders in Franchising: These Women Are Defining Their Own Paths And Changing The Franchise Landscape
Women are a force to be reckoned with in the franchising world. Here are a few female leaders shaking up the industry.
For a long time, franchising was viewed as a male-dominated industry.
But times change—and so too has that perception. In recent years, as more and more women have entered the workforce in record numbers, a growing percentage of them are taking the entrepreneurial route to success.
Over the past five years, the amount of women entering the franchising sector has increased 45 percent. According to the International Franchise Association, women now own more than 21 percent of all franchise businesses, and an added 43 percent of franchised businesses are co-owned and operated by men and women together. These numbers paint a telling picture—the gender gap is shrinking. All over the country, women are emerging as leaders within the franchise industry, and they’re not only leading, but also prospering in businesses across all sectors.
It takes strong leadership to run a franchise network of hundreds of thousands of independent businesses. These female executives are up to the task.
Susan Boresow – President of TITLE Boxing ClubAs a marketing-industry leader, Susan Boresow has steered brand vision for some of the most-recognized names in franchising, including McDonald’s, Sport Clips*, Cold Stone Creamery, Pump it Up and Godfather’s Pizza. Most recently, she served as the chief marketing officer for the membership-based therapeutic massage giant, Massage Envy.
In 2015, Boresow was named the new president of Title Boxing Club, where she was tasked with the important job of formulating and developing strategies that will help guide the direction and evolution of the brand, strengthen franchisee relationships and evolve TITLE Boxing Club’s vision and mission.
Jania Bailey has more than 25 years of experience in the banking and franchise industries. For more than eight years, Bailey worked with Fantastic Sams International, a hair care franchise. It was there that she served as the regional manager and oversaw operational support and development for franchisees in a five-state region.
In 2006, Bailey was named the president of FranNet, and by early 2015, she was promoted to CEO. Bailey has led FranNet to be recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S. She has also received numerous industry accolades, including the Bell Award for “Outstanding Volunteerism in the Workplace” and St. Matthews Business and Professional Women Organization’s “Woman of Achievement Award.” In 2013, Bailey was also named the winner of SCORE’s Lou Campanelli Award, which recognizes outstanding leadership, volunteerism, vision and philanthropy in support of small business—familiar territory for Bailey, since FranNet is a leader in matching individuals with franchise opportunities.
Terri Snyder has 30 years of marketing experience in food service, including Pizza Hut, Domino’s and TGI Friday’s. Over the years, she’s helped to craft brand identities, advertising messages, public relations campaigns and new product innovations for multiple marquee chains in the casual dining and quick service restaurant segments.
Since April 2007, Snyder has served Checkers & Rally’s as its chief marketing officer and executive vice president. Since taking the wheel, she has played a vital role in helping to enhance the customer experience each and every time a person visits a Checkers restaurant. Under her watch, the more than 800-unit brand has received some of the restaurant industry’s most prestigious awards, including “Best Drive-Thru in America” from QSR Magazine and the “Hot! Again” award from Nation’s Restaurant News.
Amy Cheng – Founding Partner of Cheng Cohen, LLC
Amy Cheng is a founding partner of Cheng Cohen, LLC—a nine-year-old full-service boutique law firm that provides franchisors, licensors and manufacturers the comprehensive legal services needed to get their products and services marketed efficiently and economically. Cheng helps to represent clients of all sizes, from start-ups to mature companies with multi-national operations.
Cheng’s hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed—she was named a “Legal Eagle” by the Franchise Times, recognized by Who’s Who Legal, Leading Lawyers, Chambers and Partners and selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers of America and is The Best Lawyers’ 2014 Chicago Franchise Law “Lawyer of the Year.”
In 1989, Melanie Bergeron was awarded the first TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® franchise in Atlanta, Georgia. It wasn’t long thereafter that Bergeron joined the TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® home office in Lansing, Michigan, where she assumed the role of president in 1994. Since then, she’s helped to grow the brand both domestically and internationally to more than 330 locations worldwide—all supported by a strong system of nearly 8,000 employees.
In 2015, Bergeron also assumed the role of chairwoman of the International Franchise Association, where she worked tirelessly to defend and promote the franchise business model.
Danessa Itaya is the Vice President of Maid Right Franchising LLC. In this role, Itaya is responsible for developing and growing the brand’s two tiered franchise system. Before joining Maid Right in early 2013, she worked with Molly Maid since 1994, where she held a variety of roles including vice president and senior director of operations and vice president of training.
As the Vice President of Brand Services for Saladworks, Jena Henderson has helped transform and re-energize the 29-year-old brand. A part of Saladworks since 2005, Henderson has watched the brand roll out new-and-improved development plans to accelerate growth both nationally and internationally, which included the launch of a new menu and a revamped store design.
Before joining Saladworks, Henderson worked at Amazon Systems LLC as their director of operations.
Boasting more than 30 years of experience as a senior executive, Tara Riley is now leading one of the fastest growing painting companies in the world. President of Fresh Coat since 2014, Riley has been helping the brand charge forward throughout the U.S., and today, there are more than 130 locations throughout 35 states.
Riley’s greatest success lies in creating profitable growth for brands. Leading teams in a variety of business models, Riley has experience working within global franchise icons such as McDonald’s and other much younger high-growth brands. Before joining Fresh Coat, Riley served as vice president of the Comfort Keeper’s senior care brand.
Rhoda Olsen joined the Great Clips executive team in 1987 when the brand was a regional chain of 180 salons owned by three partners. When she became Great Clips’ CEO in 2011 (after previously serving as president and chief operations officer in 1998), she brought with her more than 20 years of executive leadership experience. Under her watch, Great Clips grew from 1,000 salons in 1998 to more than 3,800 in 2015. Today, Olsen’s focus is on building a legacy brand though continued collaboration and strong relationships with Great Clips franchisees.
Last year, Olsen was named the 2015 Executive of the Year by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal—a top honor from the Minnesota business community.
In 2009, Sun was selected as the International Franchise Association’s Entrepreneur of the Year for 2009, becoming not only the youngest recipient of this impressive award, but also only the second female recipient. In 2011, Sun was also recognized by the Women Presidents Organization and American Express Open as No. 1 in their Top 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Led Organizations.
Shelly Sun is the CEO and co-founder of BrightStar Care. When the company was first launched in 2002, it was the first and only franchising company in the country to specialize in both medical and non-medical care and health care staffing. For more than 13 years, Sun has guided the rapid and strategic growth of BrighStar Care from one corporate-owned location in 2005, to more than 260 locations nationwide.
*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.
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