Rank #3029
Tony Townley
Net worth $1.2B
Fast food · United States
- Born
- May 01, 1962
- Age
- 64
- Source
- Fast food
- Residence
- Bogart, Georgia
- Citizenship
- United States
- Marital status
- Married
- Children
- 4
- Education
Net worth over time
Biography
- Tony Townley founded the chicken chain Zaxby's with Zach McLeroy, his best friend since the seventh grade.
- Townley and McLeroy each put up $8,000 to open the first Zaxby's restaurant in Statesboro, Georgia in 1990.
- In 2020, Townley sold his stake in the business to Goldman Sachs for nearly $1 billion (pre-tax).
- McLeroy sold part of his stake and remained CEO after the sale before stepping down from the chief executive role in 2022.
- Townley and his wife Elizabeth have poured a chunk of their earnings into buying at least 35,000 acres of timberland and farmland around Georgia.
- Before founding Zaxby's, Townley was CEO and president of Southern Mortgage & Lending Corporation in Athens, Georgia.
- Townley and his wife Elizabeth personally tend to their farmland and timberland.