Good Times Restaurants Inc. has named Jim Zielke chief financial officer, effective May 4.
The Golden, Colo.-based parent to the 37-unit Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard chain and licensee of three Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar units said Zielke will oversee financial management of the company, as well as the information technology, human resources and legal departments.
Gary Heller, who was the company’s acting CFO, has left to become director of operations of Il Buco restaurant and Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria in New York City.
Most recently, Zielke was president and CFO of F&H Acquisition Corp., parent to the Fox & Hound and Champps restaurants. During his tenure there, Fox & Hound went public and F&H purchased Champps. He previously held senior finance and accounting positions at PepsiCo Restaurant Services before it became Yum! Brands Inc.
“Jim brings a great combination of internal financial skills, ability to communicate with the financial community, and experience managing a high growth restaurant company in the public markets,” Good Times president and CEO Boyd Hoback said in a press release.
“In addition to proven financial skills, he has the reputation of being one of the smartest guys around, with a close tie to and understanding of operations,” he added. “That combination brings us a great balance of tight cost controls without compromising the execution of our two concepts’ brand experience that is positioned on high quality and personalized service. Jim will continue to improve our strong foundation of systems to support accelerated new unit growth. As we have indicated, we have aggressive growth goals and Jim will help maintain strong financial management and a rigorous commitment to our restaurant-level financial models, and assist in our capital formation strategy as we move forward.”
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