Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue III, 2014 | Page 36

2014 MVP AWARDS
BY DEBBIE SELINSKY

Leading by Example
Partners care for employees and community

C

heckers co-franchisees Bruce Keehn and Andrew
Lynn don’t seek photo ops or newspaper articles
about all the good they do in their communities.
But their actions speak volumes.
In 1996, when race riots ensued after a white police officer shot a 28-year-old black man in Paterson, N.J., news
footage showed Checkers bags atop police cars, where Keehn
and his people had placed them. In 2012, when Hurricane
Sandy struck New Jersey, their staff could be found everywhere giving away free Checkers food, even though one of
their own restaurants had been hit hard.
“Everything that has happened in this area in the past
20 years, we’ve been there,” says Keehn, who spent years at
Burger King corporate before becoming a Checkers franchisee. “We’re blessed to have been accepted into this community and we take every opportunity to support it and
have an impact.”

Bruce Keehn

Lynn—an active board member of the Checkers/Rally’s
Employee Relief Fund since it was established in 2005—and
Keehn have an ironclad philosophy about the way they give,
says Keehn. “Andrew and I feel that we want to help the
community, so we never say no, no matter what the business
pressures are. But we’ve never written a check, because if we
did it once we’d have to do it for everybody. We give away
free food and thousands of Checkers t-shirts.”
The longtime friends come
from very different backgrounds. Keehn came from a
New Jersey restaurant family
and worked while going to
college. Lynn comes from “old
money” and lives in Belleair,
Fla., where he has a real estate
business. Both share a passion
for Checkers and for people.
“We’re diehard franchisees
for Checkers. Andrew didn’t
Andrew Lynn
know anything about fast food
when we started, so he went to Checkers’ management training program and loved it. He’s on the Franchise Advisory
Council and stays on top of things, and is on his local hospital board of directors. He volunteers at the hospital five
days a week,” says Keehn. “Before we became co-franchisees,
I’d always worked for somebody else, but Andrew’s been so
supportive of our family, and through this relationship my
wife and I have been able to take care of our children and
NAME: Bruce Keehn and Andrew Lynn
TITLE: Keehn: COO, managing member; Lynn,
president, managing member, Best Burger
Management, Sea Girt, N.J.
NO. OF UNITS: Checkers Drive-In, 7
AGE: Keehn, 60; Lynn, 65
FAMILY: Keehn: wife Lisa, daughter Staci, son Bruce

who does the landscaping for all the restaurants,
daughter Evelyn, entering graduate school
YEARS IN FRANCHISING: 40
YEARS IN CURRENT POSITION: 20

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MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S UE III, 2014