Black Box Intelligence Leadership Team
David Cantu
CEO
Prior to Black Box Intelligence, Cantu worked his way up in restaurant management with Outback Steakhouse and P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, where he served as an Operating Partner in San Antonio, TX. In 1999, he co-founded HotSchedules, the industry’s leading workforce management solution.
In his 21 years at HotSchedules, David served as Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Customer Officer, respectively. He facilitated multiple mergers and acquisitions fueling HotSchedules’ significant scale and market position with 6,000 restaurant brands managing 120,000 locations supported by 2.8 million hourly workers.
Passionate about innovation and client success, he oversaw the customer advisory councils and chaired the annual Spark user conference where valuable feedback was provided to guide product roadmaps for HotSchedules’ portfolio of products. He departed HotSchedules in 2019 after overseeing the acquisition and merger of HotSchedules and Fourth Enterprises by Marlin Equity Partners.
David serves on the board of directors for Wisely, a customer engagement platform, and has investments in various restaurant technologies shaping restaurant operations and guest experience.
David currently lives in Austin, TX with his wife Danielle and 3 children, Cadie, Giana and Luca. He enjoys hiking, boating, grilling and watching his kids play competitive sports.
Greg Kingen
CRO
“Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.” Those words from Max Ehrmann’s 1927 poem “Desiderata”, have fueled Greg Kingen since he first discovered it at the age of 13.
Inspired by those words, Greg longed to be a writer, so he pursued a degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri – Columbia. Ultimately, he found that his true passion was in software technology.
He started his professional career at ADP in their Employer Services division. Greg then transitioned into the data field working with organizations delivering data quality and business intelligence solutions. Most recently he has worked with hospitality technology providers Restaurant Magic Software, Fintech and Transact prior to joining Black Box Intelligence. Greg has a passion for helping people and enriching lives. He believes that technology, especially data, can make our work lives easier and thereby creates a better work life balance.
He currently lives in St. Petersburg Florida, where he enjoys boating, golfing, and riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Mary Hamill
SVP, Customer Success
Mary loves leading customer success and account management teams to foster customer retention and expansion of solutions within the customer portfolio. She is passionate about the hospitality industry and recognizes how difficult it is to simply get a cheeseburger served or a pizza delivered to a guest.
Mary has over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry in leading IT, HR and Training teams. Additionally she spent several years with a software company that specialized in providing back office solutions and business intelligence to the industry.
In March of 2017 Mary co-founded the Women’s Initiative & Networking Group (WING) at her prior company to proactively improve work for women in technology and to support women’s growth and development in their professional and personal lives. She has been instrumental in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and hopes to continue this at BBI.
Victor Fernandez
VP, Insights & Knowledge
Victor Fernandez is the company’s most senior analyst, having studied the restaurant industry for over seventeen years. He is responsible for creating and delivering insights, content and products that provide restaurant companies the business intelligence they need to successfully run their businesses in an increasingly competitive landscape. Victor oversees the company’s surveys and research projects and is also responsible for helping guide product development. He is a frequent contributor to articles covering the restaurant industry as well as an experienced speaker at industry events.
Victor holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS) from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He also has an undergraduate degree in Economics from Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala City, Guatemala, his hometown.
Prior to joining Black Box Intelligence Victor worked as a research analyst for a consulting firm in Guatemala and along with his wife Antonella, started their own business catering to dog owners. Victor currently lives in Frisco, Texas with his wife and two sons, Diego and Mateo. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveling and is passionate about anything relating to music.
John Harper
VP, Engineering
“It’s not how many times you get knocked down that count, it’s how many times you get back up” – George A. Custer. That’s passion, perseverance, faith, growth, optimism, and leadership all-in-one that has guided John Harper throughout his career.
John joined Black Box Intelligence bringing a diverse range of full-stack software engineering experience in Web, API, Mobile, Cloud, and Data architecture. On the BBI team, he is designing and building our next-generation Software-as-a-Service platform. In this role, he is vigorously working to deliver an innovative driven product.
John has an uncommon uncompromising passion for delivering world class software. In the software engineering industry, he has educated, built, and managed across start-ups, academic institutions, and Fortune 500 enterprises. Overall, he has a proven strong track record of successfully managing software engineering teams and large scale continuous software delivery and migration.
He graduated with a Computer Information Systems in Database Management, B.S. with a 4.0 GPA Summa Cum Laude from DeVry University.
Nathan Pickerill
VP, Product
Nathan brings 17 years of experience in the hospitality and technology industries. He spent 7 years at HotSchedules/Fourth handling Enterprise Solution Architecture and Product Strategy. Before that he was with Decision Logic for 10 years, starting in Project Management and was quickly promoted to Director of Operations overseeing customer support, deployment, sales and product vision. Prior to that, he spent 17+ years in hospitality operations from bartending to GM to Corporate Beverage Director to Owner.
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