C-Suite Profiles: Stacy Peterson, Abigail Pringle

Our 4th Annual Women's Issue of Franchise Update magazine featured profiles of 28 "C-Suite Women" who are not presidents, CEOs, or founders. While not necessarily in the spotlight, these women fill critical roles necessary for a franchise system to prosper and grow. Their titles run the C-Suite gamut: chief marketing/brand officers, chief financial/accounting officers, chief development officers, chief legal officers, chief operating officers, chief technology/information officers, chief people/talent/HR officers, a chief communications officer, and a chief quality, supply chain, and commercialization officer. Several hold dual positions, including executive vice president, senior vice president, vice president, co-owner, co-founder, and board member. In short, effective female leaders who help make the franchise world go round. In recognition of their contributions to their systems, their franchisees, and to franchising as a whole, we're presenting their profiles, two per week.

This week: Stacy Peterson, Chief Information Officer at WingStop and Abigail Pringle, Chief Development Officer at The Wendy's Compan.

Stacy Peterson

Title: Chief Information Officer
Brand: WingStop
Years in franchising: 2.5
Years with current brand: 2.5
Franchised units: 826
Total units: 845
Brand revenue: $78 million

Background: Stacy Peterson was named Chief Information Officer at WingStop in August 2014. She joined the company in September 2013 and served as Senior Vice President of Information Technology before becoming CIO. Before Wingstop, she was Vice President of Information Technology for CB Richard Ellis (now CBRE), a major commercial real estate company (Oct. 2011 to Aug. 2013), having previously served as Director of IT (Oct. 2010 to Oct. 2011). Before that, she was Director of IT for FedEx Services (Aug. 2009 to Sept. 2010), and Director of IT for FedEx Office (Dec. 2006 to Aug. 2009). In her more than 15 years of information technology experience, she also held management roles at Kinko's and Blockbuster. She earned her B.S. in Business Management from Florida Atlantic University.

Abigail Pringle

Title: Chief Development Officer
Brand: The Wendy's Company
Years in franchising: 15
Years with current brand: 15
Franchised units: Nearly 6,100
Total units: 6,500 (approx.)
Brand revenue: $1.9 billion (2015)

Background: Abigail Pringle, Chief Development Officer since December 2014, is responsible for design, construction, real estate planning, site selection, portfolio management, and franchise development and services. She leads the brand's reimaging, new restaurant development, and system optimization growth initiatives for North America. Previously, as Senior Vice President, she led the company's Image Activation efforts, involving the creation of new restaurant designs and uniforms and partnering with the marketing team to redesign the brand logo and packaging. Before being named SVP in 2012, she served as Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Planning, responsible for facilitating the company's brand planning process and driving key strategies such as pricing, breakfast, sustainability (CSR), and franchise excellence. Before joining Wendy's in 2002, she worked for Accenture in process reengineering, systems implementation, organizational design, and change management.