Todd Graves (born 1972) is an American entrepreneur and founder of

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers is an American fast-food restaurant chain specializing in chicken fingers founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey in 1996. History Founders Todd Graves and Craig Silvey were both enrolled ...

, a fast food restaurant company that specializes in fried chicken finger meals. Graves, along with Craig Silvey, founded the first restaurant in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

in 1996.

Early life

Graves was born in New Orleans and raised in Baton Rouge. Graves graduated from Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Graves attended the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, where he received a degree in telecommunications. At Georgia, Graves was an initiated brother of the Nu chapter of

Lambda Chi Alpha Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly known as Lambda Chi, is a college fraternity in North America which was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is one of the largest social fraternities in North America, with more than 300,000 lifetime members a ...

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers

Graves and long time friend Craig Silvey used Silvey's business plan course at LSU to create their business plan. Graves opened Raising Cane's near the North Gates of

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

on Highland Road in 1996. By 2022 the company expanded to more than 600 restaurants in the U.S. and the Middle East. The restaurants are named after Raising Cane I, Graves’ dog at the time of the founding of the first restaurant. They are headquartered in Baton Rouge.

Personal life

Graves and his wife, Gwen, have two children and reside in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with their yellow Labrador, Raising Cane III.

Collections

BREC Dog Park Groundbreaking City Park Scaled-10

An avid collector, Graves has loaned a 66-million-year-old

triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivore, herbivorous Chasmosaurinae, chasmosaurine Ceratopsidae, ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period, about 68 m ...

skull to the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum. He has also loaned the hearse that carried

Martin Luther King, Jr Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

. to exhibits across the country. RestaurantRecoverywithToddGravesLasVegasEpisode

References

External links

Raising Canes website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graves, Todd 1972 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) American chief executives of food industry companies American fishers American food company founders American boilermakers Fast-food chain founders Episcopal High School (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) alumni People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana People from Bristol Bay Borough, Alaska