Board of Directors

OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT – CHRIS O’DONNELL

 

Our President for 2011-2012 is CHRIS O’DONNELL who is with Chili’s Restaurants.   Born on the Main Line in Philadelphia, PA., and later growing up on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, Chris has beeninvolved in every kind of restaurant from fine dining to fast food. He moved to Houston in 1980 during the boom. Chris’ first job in Houston was working for General Leisure. He worked his way up to Area Director for one of the concepts there; The Longhorn Café.In 1984, Chris and a few of his best friends, opened their own restaurant in downtown Houston; Oxford’s – A Civilized Restaurant & Bar. Oxford’s had a line at the door most weekday lunches, but as happens from unforeseen circumstances, closed a couple of years later. Chris was offered a position with Steak & Ale, and quickly rose to General Manager. A few years later, Showbix bought Monterey House and Chris was offered an Area Director position within that concept with other S&A leaders taking over this brand.Chris and his wife Connie always loved to eat out at Chili’s while they were dating and later after they had married, so when Chris was offered a position at Chili’s, he jumped at the chance to work at the place where he and his family loved to eat. Now 21 years later, he still considers it to be the one of the best decisions of his life.Chris O’Donnell has worked at Chili’s since 1990 as Manager, General Manager, and Managing Partner. Chris has been an Area Director for Chili’s for the last 13 years covering up to 9 Chili’s in the Houston, Woodlands, Conroe, Huntsville, and Humble areas & he has truly enjoyed every minute of it.Chris has a belief that if you are lucky enough to love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. As a wise old Chilihead named Kenny once said, “let’s go play restaurant.” Chris has held leadership positions within the Greater Houston Restaurant Association for the past 4 years and on July 1st, 2011, took the helm as the GHRA Board President.   

2011-2012 GHRA BOARD MEMBERS:     

Officers
	First	Last	Company
President	Chris	O’Donnell	Chili’s Restaurants
President Elect	Reginald	Coachman	Focus Brands, Inc./Schlotzsky’s
1st VP	Walter	Cervin	Outback Steakhouse
2nd VP	Frank	Crapitto	Crapitto’s Cucina Italiana
Secretary	Paige	Cokinos	Swantner & Gordon
Treasurer	Martin	Erenwert	Brothers Produce Inc
Immediate Past Pres.	Mike	Shine	Texas Food Group
Regular Members
	First	Last	Company
	Ricardo	Molina	Molina’s Mexican Restaurant
	Scott	Boyd	P.F. Chang’s China Bistro
	Peter	Garcia	El Meson Restaurant
	Alfonso	Hernandez	James Coney Island
	Ernest	Pekmezaris	Pappa’s Restaurants
	Hector	Ortega	Backstreet Café
	Todd	Coutee	Luby’s/Fudruckers
	Tom	Dayton	Goode Company
	David	DeVane	Sysco Foods of Houston
	Scott	Gray	Luby’s
	Kris	Guthrie	Landry’s
	Mike	Johnson	Carrabba’s
	Reginald	Martin	Martin Gourmet/ Westside H.S.
	Steve	Sula	Taco Bell
Associate Members
	First	Last	Company
	Steve	Guberman	US Food Service
	Mark	Passmore	JB Passmore Inc.
	Liz	Moser	Magnolia Produce
	Joe	Abuso	Genuine Hospitality Consulting
	John	Crapitto	Glazier Foods Compnay
	Kelly	Folk	Texas POS
	Ronnie	Janczak	Synergy Enterprises, Inc
	Trey	Mchale	Coca-Cola Refreshments
	Richard “Dick”	Wills	TABC
Ex-Officio
	First	Last	Company
	John	Bowen	Conrad N. Hilton College at UH
	Nancy	Graves	Conrad N. Hilton College at UH
	Janet	Lane	Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services
	Sara	McPhillips	Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau
	Ezat	Moradi	Houston Community College
	Leonard	Pringle	San Jacinto College Central
	Steve	Swofford	Culinary Institute of America