Craig Winning has spent an entire career leading, developing, growing and scaling numerous companies in the hospitality industry. His passion for delivering innovative ideas, concepts, exceptional operations, and profitability has taken him all over the globe from his native Scotland to Europe, to Australia, to Canada, and the United States.

Most recently, Craig was Senior Vice President of TOCA Social, a soccer training technology company. During his time there he led the strategic growth for their competitive socializing concept, TOCA Social. A majority of his work revolved around scaling strategy, complex lease negotiations, construction and design packages, brand marketing, and a franchise agreement launch in Mexico.

In 2019 he partnered with the ownership group of Pittsburgh based Burgatory to conceptualize and operationalize a new entertainment venue. Believing in abundant hospitality and old-school gaming like duckpin bowling, Shorty’s X was born as a new “Retro-tainment” brand. As Chief Operating Officer, Craig successfully delivered 2 new venues, Shorty’s Pins x Pints and Shorty’s Tap x Taco, with a cult-like following, allowing Shorty’s X to position itself for further growth and investment.

Prior to Shorty’s X, Craig spent 2 years as Director of Operations of Punch Bowl Social, a nationally acclaimed and Fast Company Top 50 Innovative Company. While spearheading the growth of the company, Punch Bowl Social doubled in size to 18 venues ($135M+ revenue) across the US. He implemented scalable systems like Compeat and BevNet, developed bench strength managers for expansion, and was a key leader in the due diligence of the eventual $140M investment by Cracker Barrel.

6 years were spent with Calgary, AB based Franworks Group of Companies. As an Area Partner he led a senior team overseeing multi-unit restaurant operations in the US and Canada. The team expanded and solidified the presence of 2 core brands, Elephant & Castle and State & Main, with new venue openings, extensive renovations and rebranding of legacy venues.

Additional career achievements can be found on Craig’s LinkedIn page.