Edward Toles

As the President and CEO of Cool River Café, Edward Toles was in charge of the company’s marketing, alcohol sales, and food production. Cool River Café became successful enough that Mr. Toles built 25,000-square-foot locations in Dallas and Austin, Texas, as well as Denver, Colorado, before eventually selling the company in 2002. While under Edward Toles’ management, Cool River Café’s same-store sales enjoyed an annual increase of 10 percent. Following his time with Cool River Café, Edward Toles started Rolling Dough, Ltd., a company that would purchase and build eight Panera Bread franchises in Houston, Texas. Defying corporate expectations, Mr. Toles’ Panera restaurants received high marks in both operations and quality of service, an uncommon accomplishment for a new franchise. Edward Toles has also enjoyed a distinguished legal career and has worked for such law firms as Johnson & Gibbs and Locke, Lord, Bissell, Liddell. He practices financial, banking, and corporate law. A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and Harvard Business School, Edward Toles earned three degrees from his studies. Away from his work, Edward Toles enjoys collecting baseball cards and attending University of Texas football, basketball, and baseball games. His baseball card and memorabilia collection was featured in the Dallas-Fort Worth News. A talented air guitarist, Edward Toles once entered a contest with two other lawyers in Dallas. The “band” won both the local and regional rounds to earn a spot in the air guitar nationals. Out of the 6,000 original entrants, Mr. Toles’ group finished in the top 20.