First Watch adds 2 finance experts to board

Two financial management executives have been appointed to the board of east Manatee County-based First Watch Restaurant Group.

Charley Jemley was appointed to the board and chair of the audit committee, effective immediately, while Michael Fleisher will become a board member as of Nov. 1, according to a statement from the company that specializes in serving up breakfast, brunch and lunch.

“We are pleased to welcome Charley and Michael to our board of directors, and we look forward to leaning on their extensive financial management expertise as we continue to scale the First Watch brand,” Ralph Alvarez, chairman of the board for First Watch, says in a statement.

Jemley has held leadership positions at Yum! Brands and Starbucks; and for more than four years, he has been chief financial officer at Dutch Bros. Coffee., a drive-thru coffee company headquartered in Oregon, where he remains a strategic advisor to the CEO. He is also a member of the board of directors of Four Corners Property Trust, a California-based, publicly traded company that owns, acquires and leases restaurant and retail properties. He is a member of the compensation committee for Four Corners and chairs its audit and risk committee, according to a statement.

Fleisher was chief financial officer for Wayfair Inc. of Massachusetts for more than nine years, according to a statement. Before that, he held executive positions at Warner Music Group in New York and was chief executive officer of consulting firm Gartner Inc. in Connecticut. He is on the board of directors for sneaker company Goat Group of California as well as Squarespace Inc., a publicly traded web-building and hosting company in New York, where he chairs the audit committee and is on the nominating and governance committee.

On the First Watch board, Jemley and Fleisher will join existing board members Ralph Alvarez, Irene Chang Britt, Tricia Glynn, William Kussel, Stephanie Lilak, Dave Paresky, Jostein Solheim and Chris Tomasso. 

Headquartered in University Park, First Watch encompassed 538 restaurants at the end of the second quarter and has more than 130 locations in development.