Southlake-based Del Frisco’s Restaurant Group Inc., which trades on the NASDAQ under DFRG, has named Neil Thomson as chief financial officer, effective May 22.
Thomson replaces six-year veteran Tom Pennison, who has resigned.
Thomson most recently served as chief growth officer of the Pizza Hut Asia Pacific region, a division of Yum! Brands Inc., where he was responsible for finance, development, and supply chain functions for 4,500 plus restaurants and $3.5 billion in system wide sales in 2016 across 16 countries. Previous to that, he was chief development officer for Pizza Hut International where he helped in developing the contemporary, fast-casual based asset model that later became one of the major growth engines for the Pizza Hut transformation strategy. Thomson also held several financial leadership roles within Yum! Restaurants International including vice president of finance, chief finance officer for Indian subcontinent, and director of financial control & field finance for KFC UK. Prior to joining Yum!, Thomson held the role of finance director at an internet start-up company where he successfully raised two rounds of capital from private investors and established the company’s finance function.
“We are delighted to welcome Neil to the Del Frisco’s family as our new CFO. Throughout his extensive career, Neil has demonstrated his great talent in leading finance teams through a strong combination of strategic finance, development and corporate financial planning and analysis experience. We expect to benefit from his well-established credentials and executive leadership abilities,” said Norman Abdallah, CEO. “We would also like to thank Tom for his dedicated service to Del Frisco’s over the past six years, including successfully leading the company through the IPO process. He has been a tireless advocate for our brands and we wish him well as he takes the next steps in his career.”
Thomson received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History from Oxford University, began his career pursuing a three-year audit rotation at KPMG, and earned his ACA qualification from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
