David Blackburn

Forty-two years of experience in the restaurant industry, with 15 years as the Regional Vice President of Operations and Vice President of Business Development of O’Charley’s Restaurants, Inc. David’s focus on solid operating principals and disciplined execution led a 70 unit O’Charley’s region to company leading sales and profit improvements for 11 years. David oversaw the highest number of stores in the O’Charley’s chain (including direct supervision of eight Area Supervising Partners, 70 General Managers, 280 store managers and 5,600 employees) with 2006 revenues over $205 million as well as served for 15 years on the Operations and Culinary Development Team. Additional key restaurant leadership roles includes CEO for an upscale Italian and Steakhouse regional chain and Interim CEO for Santa Fe Cattle Company, where he reorganized the company into a profitable organization that successfully emerged in October 2009 representing a $10-Million turnaround.

David has served his community with hundreds of outreach programs including serving on the Board of Directors for the DeDe Wallace Society benefiting Centerstone, the nation’s largest nonprofit mental health provider as well as serving on the board of the Urban League of Middle Tennessee serving the disenfranchised in the community alongside the beloved Nashville businessman Sam Howard.

As of October 2011, David has successfully become a licensed franchisee of McAlister’s Deli Restaurants owning and operating 96 locations in seven states under the umbrella of Southern Rock Restaurants, LLC with the home office in Franklin, Tenn. Since becoming a member of the McAlister’s Deli Franchise community, David has served nine years on the Franchise Advisory Board, three years as the Co-Chair of the Operations Culinary committee for product and execution development and on the Brand Strategy committee.

With his history of top-level financial results, he partnered in 2017 with CFO and long-term restaurant industry financial accounting partner Lisa Mathis to form COMPEL4, a financial accounting and documentation accounting firm that specializes in not only providing fast and accurate restaurant financials but also industry guidance and support for strategic planning including M&A, finance and operational strategies.