Think about this: Nowhere but in the restaurant industry do you purchase, prepare, sell and collect — all in one day.
Nancy Furr (BBA ’93) is very good at accounting for every part of that complex process.
Since December 2024, she’s been CFO at Starr Restaurants, a prominent restaurant group renowned for culinary artistry and cutting-edge design. Philadelphia-born founder Stephen Starr oversees 40 restaurants in the U.S. and internationally that have earned Michelin stars and other awards. In 2017, Starr was named Outstanding Restaurateur by the James Beard Foundation.
His secret sauce?
“Stephen has a maniacal eye for detail,” Furr says. “Every touchpoint — where customers sit, the linens they unfold, the china, glassware, food service — it’s all thought out in a way I’ve never seen before in the restaurant industry.”
Furr followed a wandering path to Starr.
She grew up in Gwinnett County, a Bulldog fan. Her family went to football games and tailgated, and Nancy wore pigtails “with a red bow on one and a black bow on the other.”
Of course, she chose UGA for college, where Terry’s accounting classes ignited a passion.
“The professors drew me into the degree where I would sit in my room and balance my finances to a penny before I went out on social occasions,” she confesses. “When I got through Terry, I was a black-and-white, debit-and-credit girl.”
Furr wanted to see the world, so she traveled as a flight attendant for two years with American Airlines. She came home to Gwinnett, worked with her folks in real estate, then joined SunTrust Bank.
A life change left her a single mother with two young kids. Undaunted, she earned a master’s at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
Furr next dove into the CPA world, first in Greensboro, Georgia, with a local accounting firm, then in Madison at her first job in the food industry as a staff accountant at Avado Brands. She was an assistant controller at Reynolds Plantation for four years, then moved on to Ted’s Montana Grill.
“When I was introduced as controller to Ted Turner,” Furr recalls of the restaurant chain’s colorful namesake, “he grinned at me and asked, ‘Do you have everything under control?’”
It turned out she did, pretty much. Furr put in 13 years at Ted’s. Then, with the children mostly grown — two of her sons are Terry grads too, as is her dad and her husband, Kevin (BBA ’18) — she couldn’t resist the challenge of working and living in a new city.
“I’ve had an interesting path, for sure,” Furr says. “It’s been full of incredible experiences for a girl who grew up 100 miles from Athens. I may be in Philadelphia now, but I’m really never too far from home.”
Favorite taste
“One of our most successful dishes is one of my favorites: the escargot from Parc, here in Philadelphia. Instead of getting the escargot in a pan, like most places, ours comes in a little cast-iron pot with mushrooms and hazelnut butter. It’s not too expensive… but even if it were, it would be worth blowing the budget.”