Top Restaurant Franchises - Brand Power

Nils H. Okeson serves as General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of Inspire Brands, a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 32,600 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide.

Okeson oversees the legal, corporate secretary, risk management, lease management, and administrative services functions for Inspire and its brands.

Prior to Inspire, Okeson was General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc.

Okeson joined Arby’s as General Counsel in 2005 and became General Counsel of Arby’s former parent corporation, Triarc Companies in 2007. In these roles, he helped lead the organization through a number of significant M&A and financing transactions as Triarc evolved into a pure play restaurant company eventually combining with Wendy’s International, Inc. to form Wendy’s/Arby’s Group in 2008. At Wendy’s/Arby’s Group, Okeson served as General Counsel of the parent company and each of the Arby’s and Wendy’s operating companies. Following Roark Capital Group’s acquisition of Arby’s in 2011, Okeson remained with Arby’s as General Counsel while assuming additional senior management responsibilities.

Previously, Okeson was a partner at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta, Georgia, where he spent 15 years specializing in corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation, and corporate finance. While at Alston & Bird, Okeson co-chaired the firm’s securities and corporate governance practice quality teams.

He was listed in Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America, and Georgia Super Lawyers. Okeson is a past member of the Advisory Board of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. In 2005, he was named a Georgia Rising Star in Atlanta magazine and Georgia Super Lawyers – Rising Stars Edition. Okeson was named Outstanding General Counsel in 2015 and Dealmaker of the Year in 2019 by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and the Georgia chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel.

Okeson is an alumnus of the University of Virginia where he received a Bachelor of Arts, with distinction, majoring in economics and minoring in mathematics. He also received a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.

John Bowie serves as Brand President of Buffalo Wild Wings, part of the Inspire Brands family of restaurants. Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 32,600 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide.

Bowie sets the strategic direction for Buffalo Wild Wings and is responsible for overseeing the brand’s marketing, franchise operations, and supply chain teams. He is also responsible for the brand’s relationship with its franchise community.

Before becoming Brand President, Bowie served as Chief Operating Officer of Buffalo Wild Wings. As COO, he oversaw North American operations for more than 600 company-owned restaurants and more than 500 franchise restaurants. He led all operations services, including training, systems, equipment, quality assurance, and performance management.

Prior to joining Buffalo Wild Wings, Bowie served as Chief Operating Officer of Arby’s. As COO, Bowie was responsible for overseeing global operations for more than 1,000 company-owned restaurants and more than 2,400 franchised restaurants across seven countries. He led all operations services, including training, restaurant services, and quality assurance. Bowie previously served as Arby’s Senior Vice President of Operations for the Northeast Region. During his tenure at Arby’s, the brand’s global system sales surged 20% to $3.7 billion, its restaurants’ average annual sales increased 22%, and restaurant margins increased 300+ BPS.

Prior to Arby’s, Bowie was President of U.S. Operations for Church’s Chicken where he was responsible for all aspects of Church’s domestic business. Reporting to the CEO (Private Equity Operating Partner), Bowie served as the number two enterprise officer with responsibility for $1.2B in revenue, $50M in EBITDA and 1,300 restaurants. He led a team of 125+ restaurant professionals in several business functions including: operations, training, finance, marketing, human resources, franchising, development, and quality assurance.

Prior to Church’s Chicken, Bowie served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of Friendly’s Ice Cream Corporation. In this role, he was responsible for all aspects of restaurant operations for 500+ restaurants. In addition, Bowie has held senior operations and marketing roles, both domestically and internationally, with Wendy’s International, Inc.

Bowie is an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame where he received a bachelor’s degree. He also received an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Wonya Lucas is president and chief executive officer of Hallmark Media. Lucas oversees the company’s portfolio of entertainment brands, including linear networks Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Drama; subscription video on demand service Hallmark Movies Now.

Prior to joining Hallmark Media in August of 2020, Lucas was president and chief executive officer of Public Broadcasting Atlanta, where she oversaw Atlanta’s NPR (WABE) and PBS (ATL PBA) stations. Previously, she was president and chief executive officer of TV One, where she became the second African American woman to hold the president and chief executive officer role at a cable television network. Prior to joining TV One, Lucas held several positions at Discovery Communications, including executive vice president and chief operating officer for Discovery Channel and Science Channel, and global chief marketing officer, which entailed oversight of marketing in 210 countries and over 130 networks.

Before joining Discovery Communications in 2008, Lucas served as general manager and executive vice president of The Weather Channel Networks, where she was responsible for corporate strategy and development and strategic marketing for The Weather Channel, Weather Channel radio and weather.com. She joined The Weather Channel Networks from Turner Broadcasting System, where she acted in a variety of roles, including senior vice president of strategic marketing for CNN (cnn.com, CNN radio, CNN Networks Worldwide and HLN); vice president of business operations and network development for TNT and TBS; and vice president of entertainment marketing for TNT Entertainment properties.

Earlier in her career, Lucas spent several years in various brand management roles for The Coca-Cola Company and Clorox.

Lucas currently serves on the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors, Sundance Institute Board of Trustees, as well as The Cable Center’s and NCTA’s Board of Directors. She received an MBA in Finance and Marketing from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and BS Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2022, she was named among The Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 Women in Entertainment, Adweek’s TV Executive of the Year, a Multichannel News Wonder Woman, and WICT Networks’ Woman of the Year (Programmer). Most recently, she was named to The Cable Center’s Hall of Fame and Broadcasting and Cable’s Hall of Fame.

Lucas is based in the company’s Studio City office and reports to Mike Perry, president and chief executive officer of Hallmark Cards, Inc.