Greg Flynn
Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
Greg Flynn is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Flynn Restaurant Group and Flynn Properties. With almost 900 Applebee’s, Taco Bell and Panera restaurants doing $1.9 billion in sales and directly employing 40,000 people in 30 states, Flynn Restaurant Group is the largest franchise operator in the US. Flynn Properties invests in commercial properties on the West Coast and has owned and managed more than 3 million square feet since its founding in 1994; it also owns, in partnership, the luxury resorts Esperanza, located in Los Cabos, Mexico, the Carneros Resort and Solage, both located in the Napa Valley, and the Hotel Madeline in Telluride.
In 2017, Greg was honored as one of the Bay Area’s Most Admired CEO’s by the San Francisco Business Times and was named Applebee’s Franchisee of the Year and Operator of the Year by Applebee’s Services Inc. In 2016, he was named Restaurant Leader of the Year by Restaurant Business Magazine and Operator of the Year by Nation's Restaurant News. In 2015, he was named Dealmaker of the Year by the Franchise Times and, in 2009, was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Greg has an AB Magna Cum Laude from Brown University, an MA from Yale University, and an MBA from the Stanford GSB. He serves on the board of the Exploratorium, the Brown University President’s Leadership Council, and the Applebee’s Franchise Business Council. He also serves on the Strategic Advisory Group of Goldman Sachs’ West Street Capital Partners VII and the Executive Advisory Board of Cove Hill Partners, L.P. He is a past chairman of the Golden Gate Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization.