John Bowie serves as Brand President of Buffalo Wild Wings, part of the Inspire Brands family of restaurants. Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 33,000 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide. Inspire is supported by about 650,000 company and franchise team members.
Bowie sets the strategic direction for Buffalo Wild Wings and is responsible for overseeing the brand’s marketing, franchise operations, and supply chain teams. He is also responsible for the brand’s relationship with its franchise community.
Before becoming Brand President, Bowie served as Chief Operating Officer of Buffalo Wild Wings. As COO, he oversaw North American operations for more than 600 company-owned restaurants and more than 500 franchise restaurants. He led all operations services, including training, systems, equipment, quality assurance, and performance management.
Prior to joining Buffalo Wild Wings, Bowie served as Chief Operating Officer of Arby’s. As COO, Bowie was responsible for overseeing global operations for more than 1,000 company-owned restaurants and more than 2,400 franchised restaurants across seven countries. He led all operations services, including training, restaurant services, and quality assurance. Bowie previously served as Arby’s Senior Vice President of Operations for the Northeast Region. During his tenure at Arby’s, the brand’s global system sales surged 20% to $3.7 billion, its restaurants’ average annual sales increased 22%, and restaurant margins increased 300+ BPS.
Prior to Arby’s, Bowie was President of U.S. Operations for Church’s Chicken where he was responsible for all aspects of Church’s domestic business. Reporting to the CEO (Private Equity Operating Partner), Bowie served as the number two enterprise officer with responsibility for $1.2B in revenue, $50M in EBITDA and 1,300 restaurants. He led a team of 125+ restaurant professionals in several business functions including: operations, training, finance, marketing, human resources, franchising, development, and quality assurance.
Prior to Church’s Chicken, Bowie served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of Friendly’s Ice Cream Corporation. In this role, he was responsible for all aspects of restaurant operations for 500+ restaurants. In addition, Bowie has held senior operations and marketing roles, both domestically and internationally, with Wendy’s International, Inc.
Bowie sits on the Board of Trustees for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Bowie is an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame where he received a bachelor’s degree. He also received an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
