Meet the people behind Southpaw

Judd Wishnow grew up loving fast food and dreamed of owning his own fast food restaurant (or playing for the Boston Red Sox). He recalls that his Uncle Harold’s best friend Gussie owned three Dunkin’ locations in Florida. To Judd, her life seemed like a fairy tale.

Since the Sox never called, Judd attended Brown University, where he graduated both Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude.  After college, Judd began his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. After his time at Goldman, Judd transitioned to Institutional Marketing at Fred Alger Management (Alger).  In 2003, he was named Vice President at Alger and the Head of Institutional Marketing, overseeing client relationships worth $5 billion in assets managed. In 2005, he founded The Panel Media Group, an in-bar digital signage business in New York City.

In 2009, Judd co-founded Southpaw with Erica and in 2010, they acquired their first Dunkin’ location. Since then, Judd and Erica have grown Southpaw by building and buying Dunkin’ and Taco Bell locations in markets all throughout the country, and have invested substantial time and resources into recruiting, training and retaining a best-in-class management team.

When he’s not working with Southpaw, Judd loves performing karaoke (he claims to have over 8 octaves of range, but no one has ever seen him hit the high notes), writing screenplays with his brother, and playing most sports (though he seems to get injured every time he steps on a field or a court. Therefore, he’s carefully considering a transition to video games).

After graduating Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts Degree, Erica began her career as an investment banking analyst in the Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging group at Deutsche Bank. In 2005, she moved on to Eastdil Secured, a wholly owned real estate banking subsidiary of Wells Fargo, to help oversee their multi-family real estate investment group.

Erica founded Southpaw with Judd in 2009. While they initially had an idea of how to run and monetize a business, they learned rapidly as they acquired their first 11 locations and quickly filled the gaps in their business knowledge.

She loves riding the waves of business, constantly learning new things, and taking on new challenges as Southpaw continues to grow and make a difference in the lives of its employees and customers. No day at Southpaw is ever the same, and Erica juggles communications with investors, her team, and collaboration with Judd with sensitivity and passion.

Erica’s energy and enthusiasm for growth and learning has lead Southpaw to generate stable and consistent returns by acquiring and operating hundreds of Dunkin’ and Taco Bell locations across the United States, employing thousands of people, and generating in over $150 million in annual sales after less than a decade and a half of business.

Erica believes Southpaw’s willingness to invest, rather than short-term cost-cutting measures, has driven and will continue to drive long-term success in the company. By investing in both people and physical locations as Co-CEO,  Erica has guided Southpaw to yield market-beating returns and Positive Same Store Sales Growth every year since the company’s inception.

When she’s not growing Southpaw, Erica loves to exercise, travel, spend time with friends and family, and watch movies with Judd.

Steve has over 30 years of financial leadership experience in managing large, complex organizations. He joined the Southpaw team in January 2018. Previously, he served as Chief Financial Officer of FL Roberts, a $250 million retailer of convenience stores, car washes and quick lubes, with a $40 million wholesale and fuel distribution business, and Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer for Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, a large restaurant chain in the Northeast, which also operated manufacturing, distribution and retail grocery store operating divisions. Steve has extensive experience managing all areas of finance and human resources, including accounting, information technology, planning & analysis, treasury, compensation & benefits, treasury and information technology.

Jeff came to Southpaw in 2011 with over 25 years of fast food and franchise experience. Throughout his career, Jeff has successfully increased sales and managed down costs through the implementation of cutting-edge, software-based systems and hands-on training. Prior to joining Southpaw, Jeff served as COO for a Dunkin’ Donuts network based in Phoenix, Arizona. He oversaw the network’s growth from zero to 19 stores in a three-year period and achieved market-beating returns despite an inferior product mix in the Phoenix market.

Jeff had similar success during his tenure at Blockbuster Video, where he served as a Regional Director of Operations for over 150 stores. Despite a difficult time for the company at large, Jeff’s territory continuously outperformed its peers and he achieved 18%+ operating margins every year during his tenure. Prior to Blockbuster, Jeff oversaw operations for all Starbucks locations in the state of Oregon and northern California.

His region consistently performed in the top ten of all Starbucks territories and he gained expertise in coffee excellence during his time with the company. Since 2011, Jeff has run day-to-day operations for Southpaw’s northeast Dunkin’ business.

Having focused his entire career on creating uplifting moments with people through service and connection, Jeff feels very fortunate to have an opportunity to put it all together in the ongoing development of Southpaw.

Jeff is a proud husband, father of four, and grandfather of one (so far). He also enjoys personal fitness, reading, outdoor activity, and travel when he’s not making connections at Southpaw.

Deek began his career in logistics and transportation with United Parcel Service leasing aircraft to global customers. In 2005 he transitioned to retail and joined The Home Depot as a store manager. While at The Home Depot, Deek was selected to join a group of store managers to participate in Six Sigma training, where he worked with a group to design new merchandising strategies to improve customer interactions.

Deek joined Taco Bell corporate in 2007 as an area coach, assuming responsibility for a struggling market. After turning around the market and becoming the top area coach in sales growth in 2009, he was promoted to DMA Leader for Taco Bell, assuming responsibility for 100 franchises and 28 company stores.

In 2011, Deek moved to KFC as a senior operations leader, supporting 248 stores in 7 states. In 2014, he joined the convenience store industry working for Thornton Oil Company and The Wills Group. Deek joined Southpaw in 2018 as Vice President for Taco Bell Operations in Kentucky and now has the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia.

When he’s not with the team at Southpaw, Deek loves flying airplanes, scuba diving, watching college sports, and spending time with his wife Colleen and three children.

When Tracy started her work with Southpaw in April 2019, she was stricken by the passion of the people who worked there and how the company puts its people first. She’d never heard so many people talk about the company owners in such a wonderful way, and she knew she wanted to be a part of this organization’s story.

In her previous HR roles, Tracy worked to align human capital strategy with company business plans and improve manager-employee communication for the overall wellbeing of the company and all who worked there. She also supported over 100 employees, both domestic and international, to ensure smooth working relationships for the overall productivity of the company and wellbeing of the staff.

Tracy brings more than 20 years of human resources experience to Southpaw, where she now oversees all aspects of HR and Payroll for Southpaw, which includes the Taco Bell locations in Kentucky the Mid-Atlantic and Georgia, the Dunkin’ locations in New York, New Jersey and the Southpaw corporate office in Connecticut. She is responsible for leading all facets of human resources, including but not limited to culture, recognition, compensation and benefits, diversity, employee relations, employee communications, HR policy, business systems, performance management, talent acquisition, and talent management.

She strives to bring her philosophy of kindness into everything she does so that each Southpaw employee and customer knows that they matter.

When Tracy is not working, she enjoys attending live music or sporting events, photography and spending as much time as she can with her friends and family especially her husband and 2 children.