Franchise GrowthLab Team
John DeHart
Chief Strategist
John is our chief strategist. He is an expert and experienced franchise entrepreneur who spent over a decade compiling and executing on the best ways to build, operate and grow a world-class franchise system. Since selling his franchise in one of Canada’s largest franchise transactions of 2019, he has advised multiple brands on how to scale, chaired the Canadian Franchise Association, and launched Franchise GrowthLab. John knows how tough it is to get past single digit locations and truly scale, and he is inspired to help more franchisors accomplish this. His specialty is strategy and he provides abundant, clear insights and roadmaps to our clients.
John also helped build a company that won a Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures Award (2011), and Canada’s Smartest Company (2014). He has been a two-time winner of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and is an experienced keynote speaker throughout North America, giving talks on building culture and brand. He is an avid soccer coach, Cross Fitter and trail runner.
Travis Tinning
Chief Development Officer
Travis is our Chief Development Officer, a creative innovator and entrepreneur who brings expertise in sales, sales coaching and business building. With a background in sports marketing having worked for professional teams in the NHL, NBA and Major League Baseball, Travis became one of the earliest franchise partners of Canada’s leading home healthcare franchise Nurse Next Door in 2008 and grew it into a multi-million-dollar operation in his market. Experienced in all aspects of franchise development, business growth and operations, Travis brings a unique perspective to the franchisors we work with – that of a successful franchisee. He is an exceptional communicator and motivator who thrives on building strong relationships and putting people in a position to succeed. Leveraging his desire to help Franchise GrowthLab become successful and his knowledge in all things franchising he now leads Hartify in all sales and development related coaching and execution. Fun fact – Travis actually grew up in sunny Penticton, British Columbia as John’s neighbour and buddy down the street, and the two worked together as teenagers in one of their first jobs on the beach selling parasailing rides on beautiful Okanagan Lake.
Gayla DeHart
Chief Relationship Officer
Our Chief Relationship Officer, Gayla has a Ph.D. in Psychology, and is an executive coach trained in mediation who works with companies to provide leadership on branding, culture, communication, execution, governance and strategy. She is a problem-solver and a talented project manager. Gayla has co-owned two franchise systems, and understands multi-stakeholder environments and the necessity of strong relationships between the Franchisor and Franchise Partner, and between the Franchise Partner and their customers. Gayla is involved in our strategy and internal business operations, and is a specialist in helping franchisors manage complex relationships.
Patrick Wyness
Vice President of Operational Systems
Patrick is our Vice President of Operational Systems. A natural problem solver and relationship builder, he brings systems expertise in franchise onboarding, training, and performance coaching to the team. Patrick has been building systems in franchising for over 15 years with two of the most admired Canadian brands, Nurse Next Door and 1-800-GOT-JUNK? helping both grow from 10 to 100+ locations. Not wanting to just sit on the sidelines, Patrick also grew his own 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchise into $1M+ award winning location. Having successfully launched and supported 100’s of franchisees in North America and Australia Patrick knows a thing or two about systems and scalability. He relishes the opportunity to implement the best practices he has learned to help emerging brands scale faster and more efficiently with Franchise GrowthLab Consulting. Although Patrick has won several franchising awards, he’s probably most proud of his back to back fantasy football trophies (2017-2018). On weekends you will find Patrick coaching his oldest son’s soccer team, helping his daughter practice gymnastics, and building Lego with his youngest.
Hersh Kalles
Franchise Development Lead
