Director of OFG Bancorp since 2014.
Jorge Colón Gerena is the principal shareholder, president and CEO of restaurant operating companies that have the exclusive rights to the Wendy’s, Applebee’s and Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Bar-BBQ and Red Lobster franchises in Puerto Rico.
Since 1995, he has been the principal shareholder, president and CEO of Wendco of Puerto Rico, Inc., which owns 77 Wendy’s restaurants, generates more than $130 million in annual sales, and employs more than 3,000 people.
He also is the founder and CEO of companies that operate Applebee’s and Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Bar-BBQ restaurants in Puerto Rico, and the chairman of holding companies for the Sizzler, Longhorn and Olive Garden restaurant chains on the Island.
Mr. Colón Gerena serves on the Boards of Directors of Center for a New Economy, an economic policy think-tank; Centro para Puerto Rico & Sila M. Calderón Foundation, a non-profit that works to eradicate poverty and empower low-income residents; Puerto Rico Tourism Company; and Central Caribbean University, the Island’s premier private medical university.
In the past, he was in charge of capital programs for the Puerto Rico Museum of Art, a Director of the Puerto Rico Restaurant Association (ASORE, its Spanish acronym), on the Advisory Council on Small Business and Agriculture to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Chapter Chairman of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).
Mr. Colón Gerena earned a Bachelor’s in Arts & Sciences with a concentration in Business Management from Interamerican University in San Juan, and completed Executive Management courses at Northwestern University and Harvard Business School.