Nation’s Giant Hamburgers, the popular breakfast, burger and pie chain serving up no-frills fast casual fare for over seven decades, announces three new additions to its home office team on the heels of announcing its new President, Michelle Bythewood.
To round out the team, Nation’s Giant Hamburgers has brought on Ryan Alameda as Senior Vice President of Construction and Development; Kelsey McManemin as Director of Marketing; and Matt Goodman as Director of Training.
These new team members join as Nation’s Giant Hamburgers announces that it is now accepting franchisees. “We are thrilled to welcome Ryan, Kelsey and Matt to our team as we prepare to expand our footprint in a significant way,” says Nation’s Giant Hamburgers owner Grant Power. “All three of them are experts in their fields and their individual knowledge and skill sets will be indispensable to the Nation’s team during this pivotal phase.”
Ryan Alameda brings more than twenty years of experience to his role as Senior Vice President of Construction and Development at Nation’s Giant Hamburgers. Alameda, a licensed civil engineer, specializes in managing projects through their full life cycle, ensuring both the quality of the job and its adherence to estimates and schedules. Prior to joining the Nation’s team, Alameda served as Lead Engineer for The Cambay Group, focusing on the River Islands master planned community, which is one of the largest mixed use master planned developments in the State of California.
“I come from a farming family with deep roots throughout Northern California,” says Alameda. “I have childhood memories of heading to our local Nation’s for family meals. Our family owned Topflavor Farms has been providing lettuce used at Nation’s for years. Seeing first-hand the care they put into using the best produce and ingredients at their restaurants gives me confidence in the scalability of the brand at a high level of quality.”
Meanwhile, Kelsey McManemin joins Nation’s Giant Hamburgers from Salata Salad Kitchen, where she served as Senior Director of Marketing and was responsible for overseeing the marketing strategy across the national, regional and local levels for the brand. McManemin understands the delicate balance between restaurant level marketing and the home office relationship and knows how to develop a successful strategy to benefit the organization as a whole, creating winning moments for both sides. Under McManemin’s leadership, Salata revamped their entire grand opening strategy resulting in record breaking sales as they continued to open new locations.
McManemin has also held marketing roles at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, CiCi’s Pizza, and Raising Cane’s. She was recently recognized in QSR Magazine’s list of “Young Restaurant Leaders to Watch 2023” and plans to bring this same level of drive to her new role at Nation’s Giant Hamburgers by spearheading both localized and national marketing efforts as the newly franchised brand continues to expand its footprint.
Nation’s Giant Hamburgers’ new Director of Training, Matt Goodman, joins the team bringing almost twenty years of experience in the fast casual industry to his role. Prior to his current role, Goodman served as Director of Training at Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants where he was responsible for launching international training, designing a virtual reality training system, and overseeing owner/operator training, field training, and corporate manager training. His previous experience also includes Cafe Intermezzo, Whataburger, and Lubys.
Goodman is passionate about designing, building and managing training teams and giving them the tools to succeed. In his role at Nation’s Giant Hamburgers he will oversee training for all corporate and franchise team members as the brand continues to grow.
Nation’s Giant Hamburgers serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week. Nation’s fans have come to know the Northern California-based chain for its fresh produce, heaping burgers and sandwiches, shakes and sundaes, breakfast served all day, and pies available year round. In fact, in 2022 alone, Nation’s served over one million pies featuring fresh California produce, dairy and chocolate products.
For more information on Nation’s Giant Hamburgers please visit www.nationsrestaurants.com.
About Nation’s Giant Hamburgers
Founded by Russ Harvey in 1952, Nation’s Giant Hamburgers’ story began in San Pablo, California, with a hot dog stand and six stools. Craving the perfect burger and unable to find it, Harvey created the first iteration of Nation’s Giant Hamburgers, at the time named Harvey’s. Dale Power’s journey with Nation’s began in 1961, starting as a janitor and working his way up to manager. By 1970, Power had saved up enough to open his first Nation’s and became a partner in the growing restaurant company. Today, Dale’s son Grant Power serves as Nation’s Giant Hamburger’s owner, continuing to fuel the mission to serve the best burgers and handmade pies in the nation.
In its 70th year, Nation’s Giant Hamburgers now has 29 restaurants located throughout Northern California and is known for its all-day breakfast, burgers, sandwiches, hotdogs, shakes and homemade pies. For more information on Nation’s Giant Hamburgers please visit www.nationsrestaurants.com. For franchising inquiries and opportunities please visit www.nationsrestaurantsfranchise.com.
