Rivera named president of Meineke (update)

(Driven Brands Inc. photo)
Danny Rivera

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Oct. 29, 2014) – Driven Brands Inc. has promoted Danny Rivera, chief information officer since 2012, to president of its Meineke Car Care Centers L.L.C. brand, filling a position vacated by Paul Clayton in June.

“The Meineke executive team believes that throughout the past two years, [Mr. Rivera's] leadership expertise and energy has played a major role in strengthening the Meineke brand,” said Driven Brands CEO Jonathan Fitzpatrick, who cited Mr. Rivera's “terrific track record” as a basis for his promotion.

“I look forward to his consistently significant brand contributions.”

Mr. Rivera also was executive vice president of Meineke since June.

Commenting on his appointment as president of Meineke, Mr. Rivera said:  “I am excited to step into this new role. Over the past couple of years, I have partnered closely with Meineke franchisees and the Meineke team.

“I look forward to working together to continue strengthening our franchise system where our franchisees enjoy superb center-level profitability and customers benefit from Meineke's total car care expertise.”

Mr. Clayton left Driven Brands/Meineke in June to pursue an opportunity with a private restaurant group, Driven Brands said. He came to Meineke from the food service industry and is now CEO of Unami Restaurant Group L.L.C. of Los Angeles, according to his LinkedIn page.

Mr. Fitzpatrick lauded Mr. Clayton's "exceptional leadership" during his two years at Meineke and wished him well with his new endeavor.

"Paul's contributions to the brand were many," he said. "He launched the tire program, developed a new brand image and implemented a new operations platform."

A tech-savvy executive, Mr. Rivera brings more than 12 years of experience to the job, Driven Brands said. Before being named chief information officer in 2012, he led major innovation projects for Driven Brands, both at Meineke and Maaco, improving the customer experience and implementing state-of-the-art technology in centers across the U.S. and Canada, Driven Brands said.

Prior to joining Driven Brands in October 2012, Mr. Rivera worked at AutoNation, one of the world's largest car dealership chains, and prior to that worked at GE, Motorola and Burger King Corp.

There are more than 900 Meineke Car Care Center locations operating in North America, servicing 3 million cars a year, Driven Brands said.

Meineke recently won top franchise rankings from Forbes, Franchise Times and Entrepreneur Magazine and recently was named the most successful “national-to-local” enterprise digital marketer in the U.S.

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