Union Square Hospitality Group CEO Darryl "Chip" Wade — who previously oversaw 704 Red Lobster restaurants generating $2.4 billion in systemwide sales — will serve as Penn State's 2026-27 Walter J. Conti Visiting Professor, the university announced. Wade, the 2026 IFMA Gold Plate Award winner, will be in residence at University Park during the academic year.

The Conti Professorship enters its 38th year with Wade's appointment, pairing a one-year teaching rotation with a C-suite operator whose resume runs from multi-unit full-service to casual-dining chains.

What does the role cover?

Wade will guest lecture in the hospitality management program, mentor undergraduate and graduate students, and engage with faculty researchers across the school. Virtual seminars will extend his reach beyond the University Park campus throughout the 2026-27 academic year.

At Union Square Hospitality Group, Wade carries responsibility for the company's culture, the guest experience and the operational growth of its businesses. He joined the executive team as president in 2019 and was named CEO in 2022, after a 30-year career in operational leadership.

What is Wade's operator track record?

Wade's three decades touch full-service and casual dining at scale:

• Red Lobster (EVP of operations): 677 U.S. units and 27 Canadian units, with average unit sales of $3.3 million and $2.4 billion systemwide
• Legal Sea Foods (COO): operations across 31 family-owned restaurants in Boston
• Darden (SVP of enterprise operations) and Smokey Bones (SVP of development)
• TGI Fridays: more than 13 years across operations, human resources and new business development

A Pennsylvania native, Wade trained as a culinarian at Johnson & Wales College, holds a bachelor's from Widener University and earned his M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas. He sits on the boards of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit working to end childhood hunger, and previously served on the Board of Trustees for Johnson & Wales University.

What is the Conti program?

The Walter J. Conti Visiting Professorship, established in 1987 by alumni and friends of the school, has run continuously since 1988. Walter Conti earned his bachelor's from Penn State in 1952, became a well-known restaurateur and industry leader, and served on Penn State's Board of Trustees from 1974 to 1992. He died in 2016 at 87.

Donna Quadri-Felitti, the school's Marvin Ashner Endowed Director, framed Wade's hire as a fit between operator reach and the program's mentoring mandate.

"Welcoming Chip to our illustrious list of industry speakers serving in the spirit of the exceptional hospitality leader, Walter Conti, is an honor for the school," Quadri-Felitti said. "Chip's career and cultivation of talent have created award-winning restaurant cultures culminating in his prestigious 2026 IFMA Gold Plate Award."

What does Wade see in the post?

For his part, Wade cast the appointment as a two-way exchange between classroom and operator floor.

"I am truly honored to be named the 2026-27 Walter J. Conti Visiting Professor," Wade said. "Hospitality has a way of teaching you something new every day, no matter how long you have been in it, and staying on the floor keeps that intellectual curiosity alive. That is really what makes me a student for life."

With Wade in residence starting in the 2026-27 academic year, Penn State's School of Hospitality Management — established in 1937 and one of the nation's oldest — adds an operator whose own C-suite work centers on the same questions his students will face: labor cost, menu economics, and how multi-unit groups sustain growth across cycles.