Lester Owens

Lester Owens
Director
Lester Owens has been a director on our board since March 2024. He previously served as Senior Executive Vice President and former head of Operations and as a member of the Operating Committee at Wells Fargo & Company, a multinational financial services company, from July 2020 to March 2023. Mr. Owens joined Wells Fargo from Bank of New York Mellon, where he was Global Head of Operations from February 2019 to July 2020. Prior to joining Bank of New York Mellon, Mr. Owens spent 10 years at JP Morgan Chase, where he was responsible for Global Wholesale Banking Operations, among other roles. He previously led significant operations functions for Deutsche Bank, Citibank and Bankers Trust. He has served on several boards of directors, including the Board of Directors of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) in 2016, and he chaired the Clearing House Interbank Payments Board from 2015 to 2016. Mr. Owens is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health, Inc. Mr. Owens has a B.A. from Long Island University and an M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson Executive.

Wendy M. Weinstein

Wendy M. Weinstein
Director
Wendy M. Weinstein has been a director on our board since March 2024. She has served as Chief Marketing Officer at W2K Consulting, a marketing and management consulting firm with restaurant and food and beverage industry clients, since January 2001. In addition, Ms. Weinstein is a consultant in the restaurant technology, media and food distribution verticals through the Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc., a consulting and information services company, since October 2011. Previously, Ms. Weinstein was an owner and operator of Plates Restaurant, a fine dining restaurant in Westchester, New York, from January 2003 until its sale in October 2019. Prior to that, she served as Director of International Marketing at Sanpellegrino S.p.A, an Italian mineral water company (acquired by Nestle S.A. in 1998), from 1996 to 2000, and as Director of Marketing from 1989 to 1995. Ms. Weinstein currently serves as a director on the board of Newport Restaurant Group, a hospitality services firm, where she serves as a member of the Audit Committee, since January 2024. Ms. Weinstein earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Richard N. Peretz

Richard N. Peretz
Director
Richard N. Peretz has been a director on our board since March 2024. He has served as a Venture Partner at Playground Global, LLC, a technology-focused venture capital firm, since May 2021 and has served as an independent consultant since February 2020. Previously, Mr. Peretz served as the Chief Financial Officer of the United Parcel Service, Inc. (“UPS”), an American multinational shipping and receiving supply chain management company, from July 2015 to February 2020. Mr. Peretz also held various leadership positions at UPS, including as the Controller and Treasurer as well as head of Mergers & Acquisitions from 2007 to 2015, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of International Operations from 2002 to 2007 and in various other roles of increasing responsibility from 1981 to 2010. Mr. Peretz also currently serves on the boards of directors of several companies, including: Boxbot, Inc., a startup venture that produces conveyors and package handling systems, since September 2023, Altus Power, Inc., a provider of alternative energy solutions, since December 2021, and Iris Acquisition Corp., (formerly Tribe Capital Growth Corp. I), a special purpose acquisition company, since March 2021 where he serves as Chair of the Audit Committee. Mr. Peretz previously served on the board of directors of Semper Paratus Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, from October 2021 to June 2022, Electric Last Mile Solutions, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of electric vehicles, from June 2021 to June 2022, Tribe Capital Growth Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company from March 2021 to May 2022, and First International Bancorp, a state-chartered bank of Connecticut, from 2008 to 2015. Mr. Peretz served as an Investment Committee Member for the UPS Strategic Venture, a venture capital fund managed by the UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund of UPS, from 2013 to February 2020. Mr. Peretz served as a Board Member on the Atlanta Chapter of the American Red Cross, a disaster and humanitarian relief organization, from 2008 to 2015. Mr. Peretz earned a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio and an M.B.A. from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Debra Walton-Ruskin

Debra Walton-Ruskin
Director
Debra Walton-Ruskin was elected as one of our directors in February, 2024. Prior to joining Chefs’ Warehouse, Ms. Walton-Ruskin served as the Chief Revenue Officer at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), following LSEG's acquisition of Refinitiv. Her leadership was instrumental in successfully selling Refinitiv to LSEG, marking the culmination of nearly two decades at Refinitiv, Thomson Reuters, and Thomson Financial. She has held numerous C-suite roles, including Global Head of Market Development, Chief Data Officer, Chief Product Officer, and Chief Revenue Officer. She was also President & CEO of Nucleus Financial, a VC-backed startup, a Partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, and a founding Board Member of the Cantor Fitzgerald Futures Exchange. Ms. Walton-Ruskin began her career in financial services as head of sales for Australian-based Giltnet Limited, and was part of the team that took Giltnet public on the Australian Stock Exchange.