Caroline Skinner
Caroline Skinner is an award-winning CEO and COO who partners with growth-stage and enterprise restaurant brands to drive financial performance, operational excellence, and people-first cultures at scale.
With more than 18 years of progressive leadership experience in restaurant operations, Caroline specializes in unit expansion, enterprise transformation, and strategic planning across complex, multi-disciplinary teams. Her leadership spans marketing, IT, supply chain, construction and design, development, and operations — aligning functional disciplines into cohesive systems that deliver measurable financial results.
Most recently serving as Chief Operating Officer at Tupelo Honey, Caroline led unit expansion, strengthened P&L accountability, integrated people-first technology, advanced menu and supply chain innovation, and built high-performance cultures that improved loyalty and profitability. She is known for translating strategy into execution and holding teams accountable to clear financial and operational outcomes.
As a fractional executive, Caroline brings a rare blend of financial acumen, operational rigor, customer-focused strategy, and leadership development. She is frequently engaged during high-stakes inflection points, including restructures, leadership transitions, crisis response, board communications, investment strategy, critical negotiations, and technology modernization.
Caroline builds momentum, transparency, and trust that enable teams to operate at their highest level. She serves as a trusted advisor to founders, CEOs, and investment-backed portfolios navigating scale and complexity.
She is a two-time FSR “Rising Star” 20 Under 40 honoree and was named a Most Influential Restaurant Executive by Nation’s Restaurant News. Caroline holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina Asheville and a Master of Science in Business & Human Resources from Western Carolina University. She is a founding Advisory Board member of Women in Restaurant Leadership (WiRL), where she champions the advancement of women in the industry.