Loyalty and guest engagement platform Thanx received some restaurant exec star power with the news that Greg Creed, former CEO of Yum Brands, joined the company as an advisor to the CEO and board. He brings more than 40 years of experience in marketing and operations with some of the largest restaurant and consumer packaged goods brands, which includes leading Taco Bell through its “Think Outside the Bun” phase.

More recently, Creed is the author of RED Marketing: The Three Ingredients of Leading Brands. Another high point on his resume is the launch of Doritos Locos Taco at Taco Bell.

“The digitization of restaurants and recent trends in third-party delivery have brought massive change to the industry,” said Creed. “To stay competitive, marketing teams must deliver on three key elements: relevance, ease, and distinctiveness. I’m thrilled to bring my expertise to Thanx, a company at the forefront of making sophisticated marketing easy for marketers. I’m excited for the future of Thanx and for the future of restaurants who use their innovative technology to compete in the digital era.”

Thanx founder and CEO Zach Goldstein shared his enthusiasm for the partnership: “We are humbled to have such a restaurant industry luminary join our board. Greg’s experience goes beyond being the CEO of one of the largest restaurant groups in the world; he is a generational marketing mind who changed the category with his creativity and boldness. We believe data-driven personalization is the next frontier in marketing; Greg will help Thanx deliver equally-innovative technology as we continue our expansion into enterprise-scale restaurants.”

Creed and Thanx will celebrate their new partnership with a book tour starting with an inaugural event on April 6 in Dallas, Texas, at which Creed will be speaking alongside Meredith Sandland, co-author of Delivering the Digital Restaurant.

The cocktail reception and panel discussion will be hosted by Thanx and moderated by Goldstein. Interested guests can request an invitation to the in-person event or join the live stream.