Charles Watson, Vice President of Franchise Development
Charles Watson has been Vice President of Franchise Development for Tropical Smoothie Café (TSC) since January 2010. In this role Charles is responsible for all domestic and international development of the Tropical Smoothie Café brand through both corporate supported territories and area developer territories. Charles oversees both the Franchise Development and Franchise Administration departments. Under his leadership, the TSC system has grown from 265 open units to 345 open units.
A veteran hospitality professional, Charles has worked for several hospitality-related companies including Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), US Franchise Systems, Inc. and Hospitality Real Estate Counselors (HREC). Charles began his career as Director of Franchise Development for the Northeast US for US Franchise Systems, Inc. developing the Microtel Inns, Hawthorn Suites and America’s Best Inn’s hotel brands and was an all-star team member. As a Vice President for US Franchise Systems / Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Charles was responsible for all re-licensing activities, lead generation and sales management strategy. In his time with IHG, Charles held positions of increasing responsibility in the strategic services and global sales groups where he assisted in various strategic projects such as franchisee e-commerce integration, brand compliance and the launch of a global automated RFP management system. Charles also spent time as a hotel real estate broker with Hospitality Real Estate Counselors as a senior manager of hotel brokerage operations in the southeast.
Charles is a graduate of The Hotel School at Cornell University (BS) and also holds a Masters of Business administration (MBA) from The Terry School of Business at The University of Georgia. Charles lives in Atlanta with his wife and son.