our people

Nick Hammond Nick joined our team in 2001. While employed in the United States Navy for 10 years, he was deployed anywhere from two weeks to a few months at sea, mainly aboard a 688 Fast Attack nuclear submarine where his primary job was supply and logistics. Nick also piloted the submarine, operated sonar equipment, and was chief of the watch. During his time with the Navy, he travelled extensively, visiting Portugal, England, Norway, Scotland, Gibraltar (climbed twice) and Norway. Prior to starting with Summerwood, he worked for Papa John's pizza where he was a training coordinator and supervisor for nine stores. He worked for a small franchisee and decided it was time to move on. During Nick's tenure at Summerwood, he has opened two restaurants for us and has worked in TB, KFC, KT and TPHx. For a few months during 2010, Nick left our company to experience something different. Why come back? As Nick says, "Summerwood treats you like family, not just a business. The company cares enough to want to change. They host round table meetings and care what their people think. Not only do they ask, but they act on the feedback they receive." Nick's motto is the same as he learned in the Navy: "Nothing is done until it is done right!"

Rose (Rosie) Fields Rosie joined our team in 1994 after working at the Roy Rogers in Deptford for seven years. Prior to joining us, Rosie was a "stay-at-home Mom." Rosie loves her customers and her customers love her. If you stop in, you can bet there is always someone there to see Rosie. She treats her customers like family and that keeps them coming back. Rosie is truly dedicated to Summerwood, and she comments that, "...I have never had a bad manager--I am good to them and they are good to me." She walks to work in the snow and has only missed three days of work in 17 years. When asked why she likes it here, Rosie says, "Everyone at Summerwood has been loyal, compassionate and caring towards her." On her employment application, when asked how long you intend to work for Summerwood, Rosie's response was, "...Until I die or hit the lottery." Lucky for us, she hasn't hit the lottery!

Adrianne Mazzella Adrianne joined our team in 2008. She was an experienced RGM with another TB franchisee. Her husband is the Director of Operations for that franchise and she felt it would be better if she went to another organization. (And we are glad she did!) During her time, she earned Best of the Best with TB for three years. Two of the three trips were to Hawaii. Adrianne is passionate about everything she does: her family (husband and four children), her church (she co-hosts a marriage support group, has cooked and served dinner to the entire congregation, and sponsor children in Ecuador), shopping, couponing and being a Food Network junkie. During a recent trip to Atlantic City, she met Paula Deen, Claire Robinson and Sunny Anderson. Adrianne learned so much from working with a smaller franchisee, but appreciates working for Summerwood because she has more freedom as a manager and can make her own decisions. She loves the responsibility and the fact that her team depends on her every day! In 2010, she was Region 1, Servant Leader of the Year.

Robert Adams Prior to joining Summerwood, Robert worked in retail in New York City for 12 years where he opened the first Old Navy store. He also worked at Banana Republic in the World Trade Center where he was working the closing shift on the night before 9/11. After that incident, Robert relocated to New Jersey for a change of pace. During his tenure in New York, Robert has met a few celebrities; some of his favorites were Julia Roberts, Vanessa Williams and Daryl Hall. Robert joined the Summerwood team in February 2010. After training, he went to our Brooklawn, NJ store where he worked for almost a year before moving to a bigger store in Mt. Holly. Robert feels his time in the smaller store prepared him for Mt. Holly—he mentions that, "...they are two different stores with two different challenges." When asked why he likes it here, Robert says, "Summerwood is a smaller company which is more personal. In other places, I was just a number. Here, everyone knows my name."

Brandon Paige-Rockemore Brandon started with us in April 2009. He had just turned 17 and decided it was time to get a job. After graduating from high school in June 2010, he began college and is currently pursuing his BA in Business Management at Penn State. He is the proud father of a son who will be one year old in February 2012. Brandon's ultimate goal is to be a recording artist. He has two videos on YouTube and one song on viewhiphop.com. He needs some more views to make it the video of the week. If he accomplishes that, then the song hits the radio. In the interim, he enjoys working for Summerwood at KFC/Taco Bell, because, as he puts it, "Everyone likes and respects each other, it's a good feeling."

Trina Lane Trina started in 1993 as a team member in Pennsauken. She was quickly promoted to a shift leader after only a month. Her previous experience at Burger King for four years proved to be beneficial. As a shift leader, she worked at various Summerwood store locations, gaining more experience at each one. After being out on maternity leave in 1999 and 2000, she returned and was promoted to an AGM back at her first store in Pennsauken. The Pennsauken RGM left after a month, and Trina became the Lead AGM in charge of the store. She was "Rookie of the Year" her first year as an RGM. She was then moved to our Delran location; a newer and busier store, where she has been ever since. In 2007, Trina became a certified training manager, and has continued to train many of our external and internal trainees over the past several years. She has been a member of Summerwood's Best of the Best for five years, achieving number one RGM during that time. As part of the Best of the Best, she has travelled to Cancun and Aruba. These trips marked her first time out of the country. In 2009, Trina again earned a top spot for Taco Bell Corporate Best of the Best and was rewarded with an all-expense paid trip to California.