Southern Proper Hospitality CEO Tory Bartlett announced an addition to the Atlanta restaurant group’s leadership team. New executive vice president of operations Alex Curley is now overseeing all restaurant operations for the company, which includes nine concepts and 21 restaurant locations. Curley’s progressive history of restaurant operations and hospitality background will help SPH continue to shape the cultural fabric of Atlanta with distinct dining experiences.

“Guests should feel they are being cared for by their loved ones in their own home,” says Curley of the kind of experience he wants to provide at SPH restaurants. “I look forward to helping bring to life that vision of hospitality and the notion of friends serving friends.”

Curley most recently served as vice president of operations for Richard Sandoval Restaurants, a company with 45 restaurants across 20 upscale concepts in six countries. He was directly responsible for 13 locations and nine concepts with annual sales of over $50M, executing the cultural and operational model for the company.

Prior to this role, Curley was an area director for Barcelona Wine Bar, where he operated five locations covering Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Virginia. His career experience also includes management positions at both fine dining restaurants and high-volume operations in Maryland and the Washington, D.C. area.

Curley was inspired to get into the restaurant business thanks to his overseas upbringing while his father worked for the United States Foreign Service. After living in Greece, Africa, Australia and Germany, he moved to the United States for college and began working in restaurants to help pay for school. “I always felt that restaurants provided the same experience as growing up overseas in that they are constantly changing and evolving, and you have a chance to shape peoples’ experiences,” he says. “I always liked to work hard, and I loved the fact that in restaurants you get out exactly what you put in. I was always attracted to that purity.”