Full Name
Debra Strougo Frohlich
Job Title
Founder and NYC Studio Area Owner
Company
Row House
Speaker Bio
Debra is the Founder of Row House and was the founding CEO from 2013 until her partnership with Xponential Fitness in late 2017 which grew the brand to 100 currently open studios and 200 more in the works. Debra currently owns and operates the Manhattan Row House locations and works with the corporate team on all strategic brand initiatives, business development best practices and on programming initiatives. She also sits on the Franchise Advisory Council and the Marketing Fund Committee to support and represent the franchisees who are in varying stages of growth. Row House has recently been ranked 1066 in the Inc.com 5000 list of quickly growing private companies.

In addition to her expertise developing Row House from scratch, Debra has played key roles in developing businesses from scratch. Prior to Row House, she created a million dollar plus annual business for NYC, focused on creating digital partnerships with the city's tourism facing assets. This work helped NYC achieve its annual tourism numbers; tourism is traditionally the city's second biggest economic stimulus. During this time she worked with city agencies and constituents, leveraging their assets, knowledge and know-how with that of private business of all sizes. These spanned from corporations like Red Bull, Jet Blue, Starwood Hotels, and more to smaller constituents with either multiple locations like BR Guest Restaurants or single location businesses like Empire State Building and American Museum of Natural History. Debra also worked extremely closely with Broadway, spearheading the creation of Broadway Week; as a follow-up to Restaurant Week; which has become a global program to solve need periods. Debra's 5 years at NYC & Company was pivotal to her career; giving her the network and know-how to succeed.

Prior to her time developing NYC & Company's digital partnerships, Debra wanted more than anything to find a way to bridge her business acumen with her passion for the fitness industry. As an avid fitness professional, teaching classes before and after her un-related career in digital publishing, she came to learn the industry inside and out. She taught classes for top brands in NYC and took on many consulting
Projects to learn more about the varying aspects of the fitness industry: from gyms to what was becoming boutiques, to infomercial projects, to at home videos, to health and wellness expos, to the certification side of the industry, Debra spent over 5 years taking on projects to determine how she could create a career in fitness that she loved.

Even after graduating college a few years prior, she was in digital publishing for small up and coming VC-backed companied. She was passionate about disruption and even know, continues to move through her career motivated to cut through the clutter, create differentiation and establish sustaining business in smart niches. To learn more about Debra, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/debrastrougo/ or follow her on instagram @deb_and_eric.
Debra Strougo Frohlich