Mike Guinan has worked in many roles since he started at White Castle more than 39 years ago. He began his career in the castle learning all aspects of customer service while he was still in high school. Mike rapidly moved up into more prominent roles, his current role is Vice President Operations Services. As the Vice President of Operations Services Mike’s responsibilities include overseeing  Destination restaurant (Castle)  locations, the Real Estate, Construction, Engineering  teams  as well as being responsible for leading the restaurant divisions company work plan  Mike currently leads projects such as Robotics (Flippy at the Fryer)  as well as Automations (Julia our drive Thru AI). Mike revels in helping people to be all they can be and says that is one of his greatest rewards at White Castle.

Darren Spicer is the CEO & Co-Founder of Clutch Coffee Bar, a premium drive-thru beverage brand based in the Carolinas. A transformative leader, Darren helps companies grow in a way that positively impacts society and cultivates a sense of community. Under his leadership, Clutch has grown rapidly to multiple locations and established a fanatically loyal, recurring customer base through unparalleled customer experience, speed, quality, and investment in local communities and charities. On a mission to bring the future of drive-thru coffee to the Eastern Seaboard, Darren specializes in culture building, business development, trend forecasting, and new product and technology innovations. Darren has a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success in the fast-casual food industry, having worked his way up the ranks holding management roles at drive-thru coffee chains such as Dutch Bros, where he successfully helped launch de novo locations in California before going on to found Clutch in 2018.

Josh Halpern is the Chief Executive Officer for Big Chicken. Josh is a dynamic, partnership-focused, thought leader with a robust career in streamlining efficiency, driving innovation, building diverse engaged teams, and growing economic results across the CPG, retail, and restaurant verticals. Most recently, Josh served as the Chief Sales Officer for FIFCO USA, the 8th largest US brewing company, where he was responsible for commercial operations and building top and bottom-line results for Off-Premise, On-Premise, and company-owned brewpubs. Prior, Josh led the Anheuser-Busch InBev, On-Premise and Small Format channels in the US, and Shopper Marketing globally.