Prime Hospitality Group (PHG) has named Stacy Hiquet as its first Chief People Officer, signaling a formal investment in HR infrastructure as the Indianapolis-based operator scales a multistate portfolio that spans fine-dining franchises, independent food-and-beverage concepts, and hotel properties.
Hiquet steps into the newly created C-suite role with a mandate to oversee human resources strategy, talent development, and organizational culture across PHG's full portfolio. The family-owned company operates 13 Ruth's Chris Steak House franchise locations concentrated in the Midwest and Southeast, holds Marriott franchise agreements with Hilton properties in the pipeline, and develops proprietary concepts including The Exchange, Brasserie 23, and Un Deux Trois Café.
The Hire's Context
Hiquet's most recent post was Vice President of Human Resources and Talent Development at DuraMark Technologies, a manufacturing and labeling firm, where she led people strategy and culture initiatives across a scaling organization. She is also a practitioner of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a structured management framework that emphasizes leadership accountability, clear communication, and team alignment — tools that translate directly to the complexity of running multi-unit hospitality operations across disparate dayparts and service formats.
"As PHG continues to grow, investing in our people and building the right leadership infrastructure is essential to our long-term success," said Kristy Rans, President of Prime Hospitality Group. "Her leadership will help ensure our people and Core Values remain at the center of where PHG is going next."
Why Operator Scale Demands HR Infrastructure
For multi-unit franchisees pushing past the 10-unit threshold, the absence of a dedicated people executive becomes a liability. Labor remains the single largest controllable cost line in full-service restaurant operations, and franchise agreements with brands like Ruth's Chris typically require operators to maintain brand standards across hiring, training, and service delivery. A CPO-level appointment centralizes those functions — reducing turnover drag on unit economics and creating consistent onboarding pipelines that support area development agreement commitments.
PHG's move mirrors a broader trend among growth-stage franchisees in the full-service and upscale-casual segment: as operators add units and diversify into hotel and multi-concept portfolios, the people-management complexity begins to approximate that of a regional chain rather than a single-brand operator. Building HR infrastructure ahead of that inflection point — rather than reactively after it — has become a competitive differentiator for franchisees seeking to attract and retain salaried management talent in a tight labor market.
The appointment also comes as PHG prepares to add Hilton-branded hotel properties to its existing Marriott franchise footprint, layering lodging workforce dynamics — front desk, housekeeping, food-and-beverage outlets — atop the staffing demands of 13 upscale steakhouse units. Coordinating talent pipelines and culture across those distinct service formats and dayparts will be among Hiquet's most immediate operational challenges.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
