Burton ‘Skip’ Sack is Chairman of the National Restaurant Association’s Board of Directors. Mr. Sack currently is the Chair and Partner of Classic Restaurant Concepts which operates restaurants in the Greater Boston area.  After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Sack entered the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Cornell University. After graduation, Sack joined the Howard Johnson Co. working his way up to senior vice president for corporate development, real estate architecture, design and construction. In 1983, Sack left Howard Johnson’s and acquired the Red Coach Grill division, a chain of 15 dinner-house restaurants. In 1984, he gained the New England franchise rights for Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar restaurants and in 1986 opened the first Applebee’s and in October 1994 merged his company with Applebee’s International Inc. At the time, his company, Pub Ventures of New England Inc., operated in New England. After the merger closed, Skip became executive vice president of Applebee’s International.He retired from the company in 1997 and from the Board, when the company was sold in 2007.