Gabby will help lead the world’s oldest and largest franchise association, bringing a wealth of experience in franchising and dedicated commitment to the betterment of the business model

WASHINGTON, Oct 24, 2024 – The International Franchise Association (IFA) today announced Gabby Wong of FranConnect was appointed to serve on its Board of Directors. Joining along with fifteen other new directors, Gabby will start her term at the 2025 IFA Annual Convention in February, representing the franchising sector’s oldest and largest global trade association. 

“IFA’s volunteer leadership is integral in driving the association and our mission forward at a pivotal time for franchising,” said Matt Haller, IFA President and CEO. “Gabby’s expertise and experience in franchising will help take the association to new levels so we can further support our members and the opportunities they create in local communities. These new directors bring unique contributions and perspectives, and we look forward to the leadership they will provide to the entire franchise community and the millions of people it serves in the years ahead.” 

 Gabby is a seasoned operator with nearly 30 years of experience in positioning private equity-backed software and SaaS businesses for high-growth. She has deep experience in all aspects of growing technology businesses, including M&A, corporate strategy, product innovation, customer success, marketing and sales. Gabby has held successive leadership roles within FranConnect, joining first in 2016 as EVP of Operations and took the helm as CEO in 2018. 

Over the last six years, under her leadership, FranConnect’s revenue has grown by 5X and continues to lead the market in providing best-in-class sales, operations, and marketing solutions for franchise and multi-location businesses. After completing three acquisitions in four years, FranConnect has over 300 employees globally across US, Canada, India, and Australia, and serves nearly 1500 brands and 1 million locations worldwide. Gabby has been named a finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Mid-Atlantic in 2022 and 2023. Prior to FranConnect, Gabby held executive leadership positions with worldwide operating roles at Primavera Systems (now Oracle), Trusted Computer Solutions (now EverFox/ForcePoint), Vovici (now Verint Systems), and Clarabridge (now Qualtrics). 

“I am honored to join the IFA Board of Directors,” said Gabby Wong, CEO of FranConnect. “For over two decades, FranConnect has been committed to helping brands achieve operational excellence, growth and success. I am thrilled to work alongside such a distinguished group of franchise leaders as we continue to address the industry’s most significant opportunities and challenges.” 

 The 2025 IFA Board of Directors is comprised of franchisor, franchisee, and supplier members, with a diverse representation of industries and background, who provide critical guidance to the IFA on the association’s key initiatives.  

“Serving on the IFA Board is one of the greatest ways to contribute to the future of franchising,” said Steve Hockett, Chair of the IFA Board of Directors and CEO of Great Clips. “This is a remarkable group who have shown their dedication to the franchise business model and its incredible reach into nearly every community in the U.S. Their leadership will undoubtedly continue to drive the success of franchising worldwide for generations to come.”  

The full list of new 2025 directors is available here.  

The new directors will assume their positions in February 2025 and serve an initial three-year term. 

 About The International Franchise Association:  

 Celebrating over 60 years of excellence, education, and advocacy, the International Franchise Association (IFA) is the world’s oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. IFA works through its government relations and public policy, media relations, and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and the approximately 806,270 franchise establishments that support nearly 8.7 million direct jobs, $858.5 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy, and almost 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). IFA members include franchise companies in over 300 different business format categories, individual franchisees, and supplier companies that support the industry. 

About FranConnect 

FranConnect is the leading enterprise software provider for franchise and multi-location businesses. For over 20 years, the FranConnect platform has served as the backbone for sales, operations, and marketing for over 1,500 brands and one million locations worldwide. Iconic brands such as SPARC/Authentic Brands (Forever 21), Tropical Smoothie Café, Authority Brands, and Papa John’s rely on FranConnect to expand locations, streamline unit operations, enhance collaboration, and improve profitability. Backed by private equity investor Serent Capital, FranConnect is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, with global offices in Australia, India, Colombia, and Canada. For more information, visit www.franconnect.com.  

Accomplished customer experience leader with track record of driving industry-best gross retention rates joins the company to fuel its next phase of growth 

HERNDON, Va., September 18, 2024 - FranConnect, the leading provider of sales, operations, and marketing solutions for franchise and multi-location businesses, announces the appointment of Lisa Maynard to its executive leadership team as Chief Customer Officer (CCO). Maynard will lead FranConnect’s global professional services, technology services, training, customer success and customer support teams. She will also oversee all facets of the customer experience strategy, focusing on enhancing the value delivered to customers and supporting innovation and growth.

“As FranConnect continues to expand its global market presence and customer base, delivering an exceptional customer experience remains a critical driver of our success,” said FranConnect CEO Gabby Wong. “Lisa is a distinguished industry leader with a profound understanding of the growth and operational challenges our customers face. With her leadership, I am confident that our services and customer success organization will not only drive significant value and growth for FranConnect but also strengthen our role as a trusted partner to our customers. I am thrilled to welcome Lisa to this pivotal role.”

Maynard is a highly esteemed veteran in the SaaS industry, boasting over 15 years of experience in building customer experience organizations spanning onboarding, implementation, training, customer satisfaction, and account management. Most recently, she led the Customer Success organization at Prove, a high-growth SaaS company, where she directed post-sale strategy and execution for over 350 Fortune 500 clients in Financial Services, FinTech, and eCommerce. Prior to this, Maynard served as the Chief Customer Officer at ID.me, a leading digital identity provider, where she managed post-sale strategy for more than 600 Fortune 500 clients across eCommerce, Healthcare, Federal, and SLED sectors. Previously, she spearheaded the Digital Transformation Program at Accenture, advising on and implementing technology solutions to address strategic, operational, and organizational challenges in Finance, Security, and HR. Lisa’s exceptional ability to build top-performing customer experience teams earned her recognition as one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Cyber Security by The Software Report in 2022.

“I am thrilled to take on the role of Chief Customer Officer at FranConnect, an industry-leading company that has already achieved remarkable success,” said Maynard. “I am deeply committed to leveraging my passion for customer advocacy to further enhance FranConnect’s customer and engagement strategies and deliver exceptional value to our clients.”

Maynard joins FranConnect during a landmark year of market and product expansion. In 2024, FranConnect acquired RizePoint, a leading provider of Quality Management Systems. Additionally, FranConnect launched several innovative products, including Analytics, a redesigned Royalty Manager, and an Operator/Frontline Employee Training solution. These advancements further cement FranConnect’s position as the sole provider offering a unified view of the entire operations lifecycle for multi-location businesses, encompassing everything from supplier management and lead management to payment reconciliation and frontline employee training.

FranConnect has a focused market expansion plan and an ambitious product roadmap as it continues its push toward reaching over 2,000 brands and 1.5 million locations worldwide.

HERNDON, VA: August 5, 2024 — FranConnect, a leading provider of sales, operations, and marketing solutions for franchise and multi-location businesses, announces the launch of its new Operator and Frontline Employee Engagement solution. This strategic initiative follows FranConnect’s acquisition of World Manager, a global provider of learning management and front-line employee engagement solutions. By seamlessly integrating World Manager’s complementary, enterprise learning management and content creation capabilities to FranConnect’s best-in-class operational platform, it revolutionizes how multi-location businesses drive team engagement, brand consistency, and unit performance.

This robust new solution empowers multi-location businesses to develop and deploy highly customized branded content to support operator and front-line employee training for improved onboarding and engagement, enabling brands to track engagement success at the unit level. Operation teams will be better equipped to deliver and monitor best practice training, access up-to-the-minute data, staff training results, performance appraisals, and satisfaction surveys with benchmark reporting.

Unlike traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS), FranConnect’s solution leverages core best practices already embedded in its platform to inform how brands need to deploy frontline and operator training. The result is highly engaged team members who not only adhere to the brand standards but also elevate customer experiences and unit performance.

Key features include:

• Comprehensive Operational Support:
  • Personalized learning paths integrated with daily workflows
  • Mobile access for on-the-go learning and application
  • Real-time performance insights linked to relevant training modules
• Enhanced Employee Engagement and Development:
  • Custom eLearning modules for various roles
  • Gamification elements to boost motivation
  • Mobile accessibility for flexible learning
  • Career development pathways for all staff levels

“We are addressing a huge barrier to growth for multi-location businesses, which is poor customer experiences stemming from ineffectively trained operators and frontline employees,” said Gabby Wong, CEO of FranConnect. “Most LMS work as standalone, siloed applications disconnected from performance data. Our core philosophy is that a strong learning and development function is an essential channel for driving operational success. Our learning and development capabilities are now fully embedded into FranConnect’s operational platform, and therefore employee development playbooks, learning pathways, and engagement best practices can be informed, created, and deployed based on operational goals and performance analytics from across the brand.”

Release of Analytics and next generation Royalty Manager extend end-to-end insights and process & operations management.

HERNDON, Va., February 27, 2024 – FranConnect, the leading provider of franchise and multi-location management solutions for driving success in sales, operations, and marketing, announces the launch of FranConnect Analytics to provide brands with powerful, on-demand, and timely insights pulled from all areas of the business. Additionally, FranConnect has revamped its Royalty Manager application to address finance teams’ biggest pain points.

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