Wing Zone Taps Two Industry Veterans for Key Leadership Roles

Wing Zone has appointed Derek Roback as Vice President of Operations and Dean Sasso as Director of Marketing to lead the brand's operations and marketing efforts.

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Wing Zone Taps Two Industry Veterans for Key Leadership Roles

TL;DR

Wing Zone has appointed Derek Roback as Vice President of Operations and Dean Sasso as Director of Marketing. The brand plans to grow to 200 profitable restaurants by 2025.

No stranger to the food industry, Roback comes from The Wendy’s Company where he served as the Manager of Field Technology and Innovation. In that role, Roback was in charge of leading the company’s technology and innovation initiatives across 17 states in the Western U.S.

Prior to Wendy’s, Roback joined Domino’s in their Executive Leadership Development Program immediately out of college and led business units on both the corporate and franchise sides. At Wing Zone, Roback is looking forward to partnering with his team, along with current and future Wing Zone franchisees to build a culture that will support the exponential growth of the franchise across the globe.

Sasso brings a diverse wealth of knowledge to Wing Zone after holding positions at multiple advertising agencies where he was responsible for conducting promotional campaigns for clients. He most recently served as the Director of Brand Marketing with Exeo Entertainment, Inc., and held four-plus year stints as the Digital Marketing Director at RogueWaveGroup, Associate Creative Director at Epsilon and a pair of advertising roles with Ryan Partnership prior to that.

While he’s always had a passion for food, Sasso will apply his marketing and advertising acumen from his agency foundation toward improving and maintaining the marketing initiatives with Wing Zone’s consumer base.

“We are extremely excited to bring these two outstanding professionals into the Wing Zone family. Both Derek and Dean are highly skilled and have a lot of quality and unique experiences under their belts that make them well-equipped for the responsibilities they’re about to take on,” said David Bloom, Wing Zone’s Chief Development Officer. “Derek and Dean have been highly regarded in their respective fields and I have the utmost confidence in their abilities to thrive in their new roles within the Wing Zone organization.”

The duo has already begun work and are implementing their vision and strategies in their respective departments. The collective goal is to get 250 units producing $1 million per year by 2025, and establish a reputation for Wing Zone as a category leader in the restaurant franchise industry and as the wing shop that gets people the best wings the fastest.

Founded in 1993, Wing Zone is an international fast-casual restaurant franchise known for its cooked-to-order, flavor-fused chicken wings and tenders. Wing Zone's award-winning flavors are available at more than 31 locations in North America and its 30 restaurants internationally. The brand plans to grow to 200 profitable restaurants by 2025. For more information, visit www.wingzone.com. Like Wing Zone on Facebook, follow on Twitter or Instagram.

In this story

This story was originally published in Franchising.com on June 22, 2021. Burnaze summarizes and links to the original reporting.

Read the full story at Franchising.com

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