Management Team

George Naddaff – Chairman and CEO

George Naddaff is considered by many to be the “Guru of Franchising”. He developed Boston Chicken/Boston Market into a national franchise brand and in 1992 sold it to a group of Blockbuster Video executives. In 1993 he shared in its record-setting IPO (143% first-day increase). Naddaff has founded and/or been significantly involved with several other successful concepts including: Mulberry Child Care Centers, which had over 90 company-owned childcare centers when it was sold to KinderCare; Sylvan Learning Centers, the nation’s leading after-school learning facilities; Ranch*1, a New York-based chain of grilled chicken sandwich restaurants; Living and Learning Schools, which operated more than 50 upscale childcare facilities and was sold to KinderCare; VR Business Brokers, the nation’s largest business brokerage franchise with over 350 offices, which was acquired in 1986 by Christies, London. Naddaff began his career in food service when he co-founded International Foods, which operated 19 KFC franchises in the Boston area and was sold in 1970.

Charlie Cocotas — President and Chief Operating Officer

Charlie Cocotas is a restaurant industry icon and has had a distinguished career in foodservice. He served with International Dairy Queen, a company with 4,000 units, where he was Executive Vice President in charge of its Golden Skillet chain. He joined George Naddaff in the early days of Boston Chicken as President and Chief Operating Officer and helped Mr. Naddaff launch the brand that is now Boston Market into a nationwide chain. In addition, Mr. Cocotas served as the President and CEO of TCBY systems where he helped turn around the troubled 2,000-store chain. He also served as Chief Operating Officer as part of a turnaround team for the 1,500-unit Church’s Fried Chicken chain. As Chairman of the Board and CEO of Best Friends Pet Care, Inc., Mr. Cocotas raised more than $100 million in capital to grow the chain of upscale pet grooming facilities. Mr. Cocotas earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University.

Eric Spitz – Executive Vice President, Business Development

Eric has made a career of launching companies. Prior to UFood Eric held the post of CEO for Trakus, a sports technology company that he founded in 1997. At Trakus, he raised over $30 million of venture capital from individuals, venture capitalists, and corporate investors including CBS Sportsline and Toshiba. In 2006 Eric was named by the Boston Business Journal to their 40 Under 40 list of top young executives in Boston. Prior to Trakus, he worked in various capacities for the market research firm, Information Resources, Inc. He holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Tom Mackey – Senior Vice President, Operations

Tom Mackey has spent his entire career in the food and restaurant industry. Prior to joining the KnowFat! team, Mackey was president and chief operating officer of LoFat KnowFat where he oversaw all of the company’s operations. Prior to joining LFKF, he was the vice president of new growth for Metromedia Restaurant Group, parent of Bennigan’s, Steak & Ale, Ponderosa, Bonanza, and several other casual dining restaurant concepts. Before joining MRG, Mackey held various senior management positions including vice president of franchising within American Hospitality Concepts Incorporated (parent of Ground Round, Tin Alley Grill, et al.). He is a certified “Serve-Safe” instructor and has served as director of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. Mackey holds a B.S. in Hotel, Restaurant and Travel from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Irma Norton – Controller

Irma Norton is an operations-oriented financial executive with over 15 years experience with businesses ranging from start-ups to large multinational companies. Most recently, Norton was the controller for Handmade Bow Company, a privately held consumer products company. Prior to that position, Norton was the CFO for the Dunkin’ Donuts master franchisee in Mexico. In her five year tenure with Dunkin’ Donuts, she was instrumental in growing the chain from zero to 100 stores in Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana. She also was a leader in the start-up of La Fabrica, a chain of convenience stores in Mexico owned by Minsa, a large publicly held flour processing company. Norton holds a B.A. degree in Accounting from the University of Guadalajara in Mexico and is a graduate of the distinguished Executive Management Program of ITAM in Mexico City.

Michael Parduhn – Vice President, Information Management

Michael Parduhn has over 15 years of experience in designing, developing and implementing systems that enable and encourage data-driven decisions. Most recently, he spent 3 years in the IT Leadership Program at Ford Motor Company where he worked on several special projects with senior management and high profile assignments across the company. This included leading a team of over 50 people for a year as part of a $40 million vehicle costing system. Prior to Ford, he worked as a project manager and developer at Information Resource Inc. This included leading the team responsible for delivering data to the U.S. and European grocery clients as well as development of a revolutionary ad-hoc, web based reporting engine. Parduhn holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, as well as a Bachelors of Science in Accounting and Information Systems from Illinois State University.

Pat Chiacchia – Vice President, Real Estate

Patrick Chiacchia has over 30 years of real estate development experience including several national multi-unit rollouts. He specializes in precise market planning for corporate and franchise territories, greenfield development, business acquisitions, owner-financed acquisitions, leases, 1031’s, and ground leases. Earlier in his career, Mr. Chiacchia served as the Director of Real Estate for Wienerwald GMBH, the largest chain of restaurants in Europe. He then served alongside UFood’s George Naddaff and Charles Cocotas as Boston Chicken’s Director of Real Estate. He later became Vice President of Real Estate in the Northeast Quadrant for Boston Market. He also worked with Mr. Cocotas as Vice President of Development for Best Friends Pet Resorts and Salons. For the past eight years Mr. Chiacchia has assisted public companies and start-up companies in developing their real estate departments and strategies, including Microsoft, Unilever USA, Wingstop, iFLOOR, and Rapido Rabbit Car Washes.