LARRY KRUGUER

Larry’s 30 year professional career has focused on global opportunities across Consumer Service related businesses. He held senior leadership roles in both start-ups and established Fortune 500 companies with functional oversight of Marketing, Sales, Business Development, Strategy, Operations and International across a wide variety of industries: Food & Beverage, Retail Franchising, Sports Media, Travel/Entertainment, Financial Services, and Internet-Technology.

Larry heads up Floresta Franchise Consulting and serves as a key advisor to Floresta Partners. Additionally, Larry created KR Ventures, where he serves as Managing Partner/Angel Investor/Advisor in early stage concepts in the technology, retail and sports related sectors.

Prior to his recent entrepreneurial ventures, Larry served as Chief Operating Officer and EVP for Wingstop Inc., where he led the Company’s global operations, supply chain, training support and international business initiatives.

While at Wingstop, he participated in the company’s successful IPO (NASDAQ: WING) in June 2015, and initially focused his attention as President of International where he contributed to overseas expansion to five continents and thirteen countries. He helped grow unit count 5x during his tenure and was appointed to the broader role of Chief Operating Officer in January 2018. In this role, he led efforts in menu innovation, 4-wall productivity, field organization support/alignment, roll-out of Delivery across the global system and doubling system unit count during his ~ 5 years. He stepped down from his role in March 2020 to pursue personal entrepreneurial efforts.

Larry served as Vice President, International Joint Ventures and Key Markets at The Wendy’s Company, culminating an eight year career where he led overseas efforts in Marketing, Business Development, Real Estate/Site Development and Finance, including involvement in the Arby’s brand when both companies merged for a period of time.

Prior to the F&B industry, Larry held a number of senior roles across a range of industries:

  • President/Partner of Prontowash USA, a franchisor of car detailing services located across major retail malls globally and where he created the U.S. Franchise program, evolved the retail/consumer model and expanded footprint from 1 to over 50 locations across 7 states in less than 5 years.
  • Vice President/Head of Marketing and Strategic Alliances of SportsLine.com, a publicly traded (NASDAQ: SPLN) sports content provider directly competing with ESPN in generating revenues via on-line advertising, paid subscription, Fantasy sports fees and database marketing.
  • Vice President of Marketing and International Sales at Alamo Rent-A-Car where he led expansion of overseas business and domestic brand/partnership marketing efforts during merger under AutoNation/National Car Rental.
  • Vice President American Express Travel Related Services Company where he grew within the International division in Consumer Card acquisition and development of retail banking services products with particular focus in Latin America.

Born in Los Angeles to immigrant parents from Argentina, Larry grew up in a bicultural environment and moved around the country/overseas from an early age and speaks fluent Spanish/Portuguese. A father of four, his three oldest children work/study in Michigan and Massachusetts, while his youngest and wife Claudia reside in Miami, FL. The entire family are active in sports (both recreational and competitive – soccer in particular!), outdoor activities and traveling the globe – which is a favorite pastime for all.

He is a graduate of the University of Miami (Florida) where he received his Executive MBA and BA in International Finance and Marketing.