Rachel Richal is the Vice President of Training for Buffalo Wild Wings, part of the Inspire Brands family of restaurants. Inspire is a multi-brand restaurant company whose portfolio includes more than 32,600 Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, and SONIC restaurants worldwide. In her role, she leads the strategy of training, development and operations programs for both the company and franchise system. Her team’s goal is to operationalize initiatives and design engaging programs that improve performance, drive brand culture, and positively develops the team member experience.
Rachel began her hospitality career at 15 at a local restaurant in Miami. Growing up in a family in the wine business, food and beverage was always a huge part of her life. Prior to joining the team at Buffalo Wild Wings in 2019, Rachel led training and development for the Florida based restaurant chain, TooJay’s Deli and Restaurant. She is an alumni of The University of Central Florida with a degree in Hospitality Management.
Rachel was recognized in 2019 in FSR magazine’s Rising Stars list—a collection of 40 rising restaurant
professionals under 40 in the U.S. She is a Certified Hospitality Trainer from the Educational Institute and, in 2021, was recognized by Chief Learning Officer’s Learning in Practice Awards for both the Trailblazer Award and the Innovation Award. She has spoken on culture and team member engagement topics at a variety of industry conferences such as the National Restaurant Association Show, the Women in Restaurant Leadership Conference and CHART Hospitality Training Conferences.
Rachel is actively involved in the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART), for which she has been a Master Facilitator and served five years on the Board of Directors focusing on the education of hospitality trainers across the industry. She is currently the immediate Past President having served as the President of the national training association for the 2022-2023 term.
Rachel currently lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband, Dan, son, Crosby and two dogs Jemmi and Rory.
