A fifteen-year veteran of the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, today Charlee serves as Vice President of Marketing and Executive Vice President for the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group.
Her marketing responsibilities include conceptualizing strategic marketing plans, formulating key messages and creative concepts, and innovating and executing new business development strategies. She acts as a corporate spokesperson for consumer, community and media relations and has recently produced Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Seafood Cookbook, a 432-page volume to be published in Spring of 2008.
Charlee began her career with Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group as a marketing manager at BACCO and Mr. B’s Bistro. As the first person to hold the newly created role, Charlee pioneered the position, accepting early responsibility and wearing a lot of hats – a finely honed skill she continues to practice to perfection.
Over time Charlee’s role expanded as Ralph’s company grew to include Red Fish Grill, a casual seafood restaurant on Bourbon Street, Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen at the Disneyland Resort in southern California, and Ralph’s on the Park, a fine dining restaurant in Mid-City New Orleans across from City Park.
Charlee’s corporate responsibilities include operational oversight of the California-based Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen, performance improvement initiatives including new concept development, revenue growth and cost control strategies, and strategic planning and goal setting for company concepts and managers.
A key leader within the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, Charlee’s foodservice career had humble beginnings. In 1987, at age 16, Charlee began with TCBY yogurt working hard and having fun for $3.35 an hour. In less than a year, she was on top of the industry with a “junior supervisor” title, a $3.85 / hour payday, and an ‘employee of the month’ accolade.
Following her brilliant career as a summer yogurt slinger, and in an effort to appease her parents into letting her stay in her college town of Austin for the summer, Charlee took a job as a hostess at the Embassy Suites Plaza Grill restaurant.
In her spare time, Charlee serves on the Board of Directors for the National Restaurant Association’s Marketing Executives Group, the Junior League of New Orleans and the Preservation Resource Center, a local organization that promotes preservation, restoration and revitalization of New Orleans’ historic architecture and neighborhoods.
Charlee was born and raised in New Orleans. She has a B.S. in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from Tulane University. |
