Greg Flynn
Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
Greg Flynn is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Flynn Restaurant Group and Flynn Properties. With approximately 2,600 Applebee’s, Taco Bells, Paneras, Arby's, Pizza Huts and Wendy’s restaurants generating $4.5 billion in sales and employing 75,000 people in 44 states and 2 countries, Flynn Restaurant Group is the largest franchise operator in the world. Flynn Properties invests in commercial real estate and has owned and managed more than 3 million square feet since its founding in 1994; it also owns 121 hotels including the luxury resorts Esperanza and Chileno Bay, both located in Los Cabos, Mexico, the Carneros Resort and Solage, both located in the Napa Valley, the Hotel Madeline in Telluride, and the Huntington Hotel in San Francisco.
Greg has been recognized as one of the Bay Area’s Most Admired CEOs by the San Francisco Business Times, as Restaurant Leader of the Year by Restaurant Business Magazine, as Operator of the Year by Nation's Restaurant News, as Dealmaker of the Year by the Franchise Times, and as an Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young. He has been named Applebee’s Franchisee of the Year and Operator of the Year four times each, and was named Arby’s Franchisee of the Year for 2021.
Greg has an AB Magna Cum Laude from Brown University, an MA from Yale University, an MBA from the Stanford GSB, and an honorary doctorate from the Culinary Institute of America. He serves on the boards of the Exploratorium and the International Franchise Association. He also serves on the Brown University College Advisory Council, the Applebee’s Franchise Business Council, the Panera Franchise Advisory Council, the Strategic Advisory Group of Goldman Sachs’ West Street Capital Partners VII, the Executive Advisory Board of Cove Hill Partners, L.P., and as a Yale GSAS Advisor. He is a past chairman of the Golden Gate Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization and a past Member of the Brown University President’s Leadership Council.