MEET OUR SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Owner & CEO
Eric Danver
Eric Danver is the principal owner, CEO and President of FGG Spa, LLC, a franchisee for Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spas. FGG is the largest franchisee in the H&S system and has acquired and built fifty four locations in the past 8 years including locations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida. FGG is projected to do over $80MM in revenue in 2023. The company’s goal is to achieve 100 spas in the next 3-5 years.
Mr. Danver was previously an owner for PJPA, LLC that operated 53 Papa John’s Pizza restaurants. He served as Operating Partner of PJNJ from its inception in 1995 until the sale of its stores to Papa John’s in 1999. As Operating Partner of PJNJ, Eric was responsible for opening and managing the operations of 20 Papa John’s stores in southern New Jersey in a four year period, including eight in one year. Following the sale of PJNJ, Mr. Danver was interest holder and advisor to PJPA and a Director of Operations for Papa John’s International in New Jersey until PJPA acquired its Delaware stores in 2006 whereupon Mr. Danver joined PJPA. Mr. Danver became President and COO of PJPA upon the acquisition of 37 Philadelphia region stores from Papa John’s International. At its height, PJPA had 53 stores located in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey with over 1,000 employees. PJPA subsequently sold all its of its stores in 2021.
COO
Zdenka Olic
Zdenka oversees all aspects of operations at FGG Spa LLC. She is directly responsible for building upon the foundation to deliver world class client experiences, overall client satisfaction, stellar team engagement , all while scaling a rapidly growing business.
Zdenka is a spa industry insider with more than 23 years as an accomplished leader that delivers results.
Prior to joining FGG Spa LLC, she spent 15 years at The Red Door by Elizabeth Arden where she led all aspects of operational excellence across more than 26 spas nationwide with a total annual sales volume of $70 million.
CFO
Melissa Stevens
Melissa has been with FGG since inception and is responsible for all accounting-related activities and payroll. She heads our accounting department from the Florida corporate office. She has over 20 years of finance and accounting experience. Prior to working for FGG, Melissa was the Controller for PJPA, a franchisee of Papa John’s, where she oversaw all accounting activities including preparing financial statements, processing accounts payable and processing payroll for over 300 employees. Melissa has a Bachelor’s Degree in accounting and an M.B.A. from Shepherd University.
VP of Operations, Northern Division
Katie Danver
Katie oversees all aspects of operations and our Regional Leadership teams in our Northern Division - New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. She works closely with our COO in supporting all aspects of the business including daily operations, acquisitions, new spa openings, and development. Katie has been in the Hand and Stone industry since 2013. She began her spa journey as a Sales Associate on the frontlines, worked every position in management and has climbed the ranks to Vice President of Operations.
Senior VP of Operations
Debbie Gulledge
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VP of Education & Training
Jake Perdue
Jake brings more than 18 years in spa and salon management and formal education in Education, Communications, and Project Management to the role of VP of Education & Training. Over his career, Jake has held roles and responsibilities in spa direction, operations management, guest experience, and marketing. As VP of Education & Training, Jake leads the charge to create and implement consistent training programs across all departments, coordinates sales and guest experience training, and helps design development tracks for our spa leaders looking to grow. He coordinates the training schedules and agendas for all new Assistant Managers, General Managers, and Regional Directors. Jake ensures accessibility of training resources and materials to be used in spas. Jake oversees the Directors of Massage, Esthetics, and Recruiting, as well as the company's Training General Manager program.
Director of Esthetics
Dawn Piljek
Dawn is a CIDESCO graduate from Champneys International with decades of industry experience, from cruise ships and medspas to destination hotels. Before joining FGG, Dawn was a Regional Operations Manager for Hand & Stone corporate from January 2022.
As the Director of Esthetics, she works closely in the field with the Esthetics Leads, Spa Managers, and Regional Directors to grow our esthetics program to 50% or more of our business. Dawn works with Leads to provide tools, resources, and support to drive the esthetics performance in each spa.
She coordinates regional/clustered training with vendors, in-house educators, and trainers and can also be called on to provide hands-on training directly to the team. Dawn oversees the growth and success of our Cryoskin program.
Director of Massage Therapy
Doug Elman
Doug is responsible for and oversees the Massage Therapy Team, helping to ensure that each of our guests receives a World Class Client Experience. He has forged relationships with various Massage School Institutes to help maintain a steady flow of new MT’s during a decline in the number of available candidates. In addition to this, he spearheads both the MPower Education Program and Alpha School Program, all while still maintaining a hands-on schedule at one of the FGG Spas, providing massage therapy.
Doug has been with the Hand and Stone organization for 18 + years, during which time he has held positions in training and education as the Director of Massage Therapy for Hand and Stone Franchise Corp., proving himself to be a committed brand ambassador. Investing in the brand and all of our massage therapists is very important to him and he remains fully committed to doing all that he can to maintain our standing in the industry to be the best, through personal/professional development.
Doug has always been passionate about helping people. For 12+ years, he dedicated all his free time to being a volunteer EMT/Firefighter, paving the way to providing Massage Therapy to many of our clients who have been seeing Doug since he joined the Hand and Stone organization.
Director of Recruiting
Nova Amos
Nova started with FGG in 2017 as a Spa Manager and quickly elevated into a Regional Operations role. As the company continued to grow, the role of Director of Recruiting was created, and Nova was the natural choice for the role. As the Director of Recruiting, Nova works with Regional Directors and General Managers to source candidates and any questions with our interview process. Nova also helps to coordinate and strengthen relationships with local massage and esthetics schools. Nova handles new hire onboarding and processing. She manages our social media and email marketing efforts across all spas and assists in additional special projects.
Payroll & Benefits Manager
Darielle Shaloo
Darielle manages our payroll process and benefits administration. Darielle manages our insurance administration including eligibility notifications and processing applications. She handles all employee reference and verification requests. She coordinates and handles all communication regarding employee or client incidents and incident reporting.
Administrator
Wendy Mendes
Wendy has a background in commercial interior architecture and design, and is also a former owner of two Hand & Stone locations in South Florida that were acquired by FGG in 2022. She is responsible for compliance with State and local licensing requirements for the spas, and also works to support the expansion of new-build spa locations. Wendy provides support to members of the FGG team in areas of administration and operations, wherever needed.
Accountant
Ashley Danver
Ashley joined FGG Spa in 2023. She has over 10 years of accounting experience with a background in tax, healthcare, and private equity. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting with honors from Rowan University. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons.