Firenza Leadership
Dave
Wood
Founder
Dave Wood | Founder
- 1980 - Started delivering pizzas for Domino's in college
- 1981 - Promoted to General Manager of one of the highest volume Domino's in the country
- 1983 - Promoted to run 30 Domino's in NC, Atlanta and San Diego
- 1985 - Started my own franchise with Domino's
- Won virtually every award for excellence Domino's gives, including 15 IFA Gold "Frannies"
- Sold 17 locations at end of 2012
- 2013 and 14 - consulted in various businesses including a frozen yogurt chain, a Jersey Mike's Area Developer for all of Baltimore and DC DMAs (which currently has over 40 locations), a business telephone company and two technology companies
- In late summer 2014, decided to start our own fast casual pizza chain to do it better than the others
- Teamed up with my long time operating partner, Dave Baer, and opened first location in March 2015
Dave
Baer
President
Dave Baer | President
- Started as a driver for Domino’s Pizza while in college 1991
- Worked in Business Finance after college (missed pizza)
- Managed Domino’s Pizza store in 1991 Rookie manager of the year
- From 1992-1998 held positions of Supervisor, Senior Supervisor and Training Director of Corporate operations Domino’s Pizza
- November 1998 started working for Dave Wood a Domino’s Franchisee
- 1998-2012 Became VP of Operation and grew Dave Wood’s company to 17 stores and won every award in Domino’s Pizza including Supervisor of the year
- From 2013-2014 Director of Operations Zinga Franchise group and multi-store franchisee
- From 2014 to present President of Firenza Pizza
Dan
Locke
CFO
Dan Locke | CFO
- Initial investor in first Persona store in 2012
- Initial investor in Persona franchising business in 2014
- Began as CFO in 2014 and started co-managing day-to-day operations of Persona franchising in 2015 including finance, marketing, compliance, and support
- 10 years experience working in all aspects of restaurants
- Previously worked in strategic corporate finance and business development managerial roles focused on helping business clients become successful for Constant Contact and BigCommerce
- Developed business success programs used by thousands of small to medium businesses including restaurants
- Extensive experience guiding new and mature businesses through periods of exponential growth
- Masters of Business Administration and Masters of Information Systems from Boston University’s School of Management
Steve
Schreiber
Operations
Steve Schreiber | Operations
- Was an Assistant Manager for Dave Wood's Domino's franchise for several years
- Joined Old Country Buffet and ran the store in Raleigh, North Carolina
- Moved to New York to open a full service Montana themed steak house with a close friend and joined in the management team of his family's nine multi-themed restaurants
- Operated each different restaurant in the group and expanded my knowledge of the food industry exponentially
- Returned to work at Domino's with Dave Wood and Dave Baer in 1999
- Was a nominee for Rookie Manager of the year and Manager of the year several times
- Was the manager of one of the highest volume stores in the Nation
- Became a Area Supervisor in 2010 and oversaw 8-10 restaurants until the end of 2014
- Rejoined Dave and Dave in January of 2015 to develop Firenza with them
- Opened our first 2 restaurants in 2015
Joe
Baumel
Operations
Joe Baumel | Operations
- Co-Founded Persona in 2012
- Works in all aspects of the day-to-day in the original Persona Pizzeria in Santa Barbara, California
- Ran first delivery pilot for Persona in 2016
- Has served as CEO and as the Director of Quality control providing support and training to Persona franchises since 2014
- Graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, California
- Has worked as a chef and cook in a variety of restaurants in Northern California
- Graduated from Brandeis University
Our Process
Fill out contact form here
Introduction phone call with Firenza
Complete full franchise application
Face-to-face meeting with the Firenza team
Sign franchise agreement and open your first Firenza Pizza!
Not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. For information purposes only. There are approximately 14 countries and 15 US states that regulate the offer and sale of franchises. If you are a resident of one of these states or countries, are receiving this message in one of these states or countries, or intend to operate a franchise in any of these states or countries, we will not offer you a franchise unless and until we have complied with any applicable pre-sale registration and/or disclosure requirements in the applicable jurisdiction.