Michael Lastoria
Michael Lastoria is an American serial entrepreneur referred to by Bloomberg as “what Jesus might look like if he walked in a Yohji Yamamoto show.”
Lastoria has appeared on Fox Business, CNBC, MSNBC, and Yahoo, and has been featured in Forbes, AdWeek, the New York Times, and Washington Post as a distinguished entrepreneur and thought leader. Speaking on topics including the value of design-based thinking, innovation, and entrepreneurship, Lastoria has talked at Harvard Business School, George Washington University, and Georgetown to inspire the next generation of business leaders. Lastoria co-founded Innovation Ads which sold to a private equity firm in 2006, and JWALK which sold to beauty powerhouse Sheiseido in 2017 and &pizza, a creatively led, mission-driven, culture carrying, pizza chain voted one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative companies in 2018 and 2019 for Social Good. Lastoria is currently the co-founder of &vest, an independent sponsor focused on acquiring, redeveloping, and growing consumer brands and iconic hospitality developments.
Lastoria is a fair wage fighter and member of the advocacy network Business at a Fair Minimum Wage. He's promoted increases in minimum wage across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and with Barack Obama’s Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez. He introduced the Raise the Wage Act with Senator Sanders, Senator Pelosi and Senator Schumer in 2016 and 2017 respectively. At Lastoria’s direction, &pizza was the first national restaurant chain to commit to $15 minimum wage has donated to over 1,000 local causes aligned with the company’s core values.
Lastoria has been identified as one of the country’s top executives, listed in QSR’s 2019 and 2020 Readers’ Choice Awards as a Most Admired Fast-Casual Leader, on ILC's as the 2018 Icon of Culture, on Nation’s Restaurant News' Annual Power List in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and Fast Casual’s Movers and Shakers List in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, in the Washington Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, and was named Business Person of the Year in 2017 by the Small Business Council of America.
