NEWS--Spicy Pickle Franchising, Inc. (OTCBB: SPKL), operator of the fast casual Spicy Pickle® restaurant chain in the United States and BG Urban Café™ restaurant chain in Canada, today announced it has appointed Carl Vertuca to its seven member board of directors.
Mr. Vertuca is president of the Vertuca Group, a venture capital and real estate investment company and is a managing member of the limited liability company that is the general partner of SOB Ventures, a private equity fund. In his career, Mr. Vertuca has held senior financial positions at IBM and Storage Tech Corporation.
Mr. Vertuca is also a director of DDI Corp., a publicly held company, where he serves as chairman of the audit committee and a member of the finance, nominating, and governance committees. He previously was executive vice president of finance, corporate development and administration and a director of The Dii Group, a publicly held company, until it was sold to Flextronics International.
In making the announcement, CEO and director Mark Laramie noted that, "Mr. Vertuca brings to our board very strong credentials in business and finance and completes our move to an extremely capable and professional board of directors all of whom have 'been there before'. I believe this is now the strongest board with which I have ever been associated, and I have been associated with some excellent boards."
Other serving directors are:
Dr. Presley O. Reed (chairman of the board), chief medical officer and chairman of Reed Group, Ltd, a workplace absence management business, and publisher of the MDGuidelines;
Morris J. Siegel (chairman of the audit committee), investor, and co-founder and previously CEO of Celestial Seasonings, Inc., the largest manufacturer and retail marketer of herbal and specialty teas in North America. Mr. Siegel also serves on the board of Whole Foods Market, Camelback Corp., and Annie's Homegrown Foods;
Gregory K. Marshall (chairman of the compensation committee), head of the Marshall Consulting Group, independent consultant to the food service industry. Previously Mr. Marshall was senior vice president of Sysco Corporation, a national, multi-billion dollar foodservice distributor. Mr. Marshall also founded Sygma Network, Inc. and built it into the nation's second largest distributor to restaurant chains before selling it to Sysco. He serves on the board of CiCi's Pizza;
Patricia S. Reed, previously president of the Reed Group, Ltd; and
Raymond J. BonAnno, CEO and chairman of the board of Fleet Car-Lease, Inc., a new and used vehicle transport business.
Mr. Siegel, Mr. Marshall and Mrs. Reed joined the board in March 2010, and Mr. Laramie joined the board in April 2010.
AI
