Terry Marks

Terry Marks is an investor and founder of Trimble Lake Advisors, LLC a sole proprietorship providing strategic advisory services to early stage, consumer-facing businesses.

Terry has over 35 years of experience in the beverage, retail, and hospitality industries. Most recently, serving eight years as CEO and Partner of HOA Restaurant Group; the owner, operator, and franchisor of over 400 Hooters and Hoots branded restaurants in more than 20 countries world-wide. Under Terry’s leadership HOA achieved record levels of revenue and operating profit before being sold to a new investment group in 2019, at which time Terry agreed to remain as CEO until 2020.

Prior to joining HOA Terry was CEO and a Director of The Pantry, Inc., a Fortune 500 publicly traded retailer headquartered in Cary, NC. With $8 billion in revenue and over 13,000 employees, the Pantry was the largest combined convenience, QSR and petroleum retailer in the Southeastern United States.

From 1987 through 2008 Terry held a wide variety of positions at Coca-Cola Enterprises, including President of the North American Group from 2005 to 2008, a period that saw the business achieve over $15 billion in annual revenue, a record at that time. In his role as President, Terry led an organization with over 55,000 employees and thirty separate collective bargaining agreements.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Terry currently serves as a director on the board of USC’s Baseball Alumni and Booster Association.