Our WIBA luncheon is a great time to network with other like-minded business leaders, enjoy a buffet lunch and hear from local speakers. This month we are excited to have Jon Rolph.
Jon Rolph is Chief Executive Officer of Thrive Restaurant Group, which owns and operates over 190 restaurants including Applebee’s, Carlos O’Kelly’s, HomeGrown, Modern Market and BakeSale. Headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, Thrive is the nation’s second-largest Applebee’s franchisee. The restaurants are in over 15 states across the Midwest, Carolinas and Appalachia. Thrive signed a deal with Qdoba in 2024 to open 30 new restaurants in North and South Carolina over the next few years.
Jon was a two-time Student Body President at Baylor University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2001. After graduating, Jon worked with college student leaders as an intern for the National Student Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C. He returned to Kansas in 2002 to work in the family-owned businesses started by his father and his uncle, David, and Darrel Rolph.
Jon has held several key positions in the company, including restaurant-level operations, V.P. of Administration and Marketing, and COO of Carlos O’Kelly’s, eventually succeeding his father as President of Sasnak Management, which was rebranded in early 2019 to Thrive Restaurant Group.
Jon has served on the boards of several local and national organizations, including the Wichita Children’s Home, United Way of the Plains, the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of Visioneering Wichita, Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, the Center for Combating Human Trafficking, and the Wichita Metro YMCA boards. His current board memberships and affiliations include Vice-Chairman of the Greater Wichita Partnership, Board of Directors of INTRUST Bank, Chairman Centralized Supply Chain Services (CSCS), Chairman of the Applebee’s Franchise Business Council, and serves as Vice-Chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents. Jon was appointed to join the Evergy Board of Directors, and his term starts in January 2025.
Jon and his wife, Lauren, are both 5th-generation Kansans. They have been married for over 18 years and have six children, ages four to fifteen.
Ninth Floor Club + Venue (formerly The Petroleum Club)
Parking is available on the upper levels and any space not marked RESERVED in the parking garage on the West side of Broadway.
Elevators are located on the East side of the building and accessible on the street and walkway levels. Go to the 9th floor.
$25 members
$50 Non-members
*Tickets are non-refundable or transferrable
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