Todd Graves is an American entrepreneur and the founder, chairman and CEO of Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers is a fast-food restaurant chain founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey on August 26, 1996. The restaurant offers chicken fingers as its only main course. Raising Cane's total revenue in 2007 was $97.3 million...

, a fast food restaurant

Fast food restaurant

A fast food restaurant, also known as a Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the industry itself, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service...

 that offers fried chicken fingers as its only main course. Graves, along with Craig Silvey, founded the restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...

 on August 28, 1996.

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers

Graves had a vision for a quick-service restaurant focusing on a simple menu item, chicken fingers. Unable to gain financing, Graves decided to raise his own capital and worked as a boilermaker

Boilermaker

A boilermaker is a trained craftsman who produces steel fabrications from plates and sections. The name originated from craftsmen who would fabricate boilers, but they may work on projects as diverse as bridges to blast furnaces to the construction of mining equipment.-Boilermaking:Many...

 in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and a commercial sockeye salmon

Sockeye salmon

Sockeye salmon , also called red salmon or blueback salmon in the USA, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it...

 fisherman in Naknek, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. On August 28, 1996, Graves opened Raising Cane's for business. Over the next 12 years, Graves would oversee the company expansion to more than 100 restaurants and more than $100 million in annual sales.

Awards & recognition

The Baton Rouge Business Report, a local business news magazine, named Graves the Young Businessperson of the Year in 2002. Additionally, the Business Report named Graves to their 2000 Top 40 Under 40 list, a recognition given to young businessmen and women in the Baton Rouge Capital Region for their achievements before the age of 40. Graves has also been named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008 award winner.

Secret Millionaire

Graves was selected to participate in the Fox Broadcasting version of the reality television

Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

 show, Secret Millionaire

Secret Millionaire

The Secret Millionaire is a reality television show which originated in the UK, in which millionaires go incognito into impoverished communities and agree to give away tens of thousands of pounds . Members of the community are told the cameras are present to film a documentary...

. The show follows a group of individual millionaires from across the country who leave their affluent, luxurious lifestyle to go undercover to experience life in some of the most impoverished communities that need help the most. Graves's restaurant chain, Raising Cane's, maintains an active community involvement through volunteering and monetary donations. They are active in aiding schools, food banks, pet welfare and active lifestyle programs. Graves has stated that Raising Cane's has given over 27% of earnings back to its communities.