Todd Graves (entrepreneur)

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Todd Bartlett Graves (born 1972) is an American businessman and co-founder^[1] of Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, a fast food restaurant specializing in fried chicken finger meals.

As of November 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth is at $9.5 billion, making him the 274th wealthiest person in the world. He ranked #107 on the 2024 Forbes 400 List of richest Americans.^[2]

Graves was born in New Orleans, and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Graves graduated from Episcopal High School in Baton Rouge.^[3] He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia.^[2]

Graves and long-time friend Craig Silvey used Silvey's business plan course at LSU to create their business plan.^[1]

Graves opened Raising Cane's near the North Gates of Louisiana State University on Highland Road in 1996.^[1] By 2022, the company expanded to more than 600 restaurants in the U.S. and the Middle East.^[4][5]

The restaurants are named after Raising Cane I, Graves' dog at the time of founding the first restaurant. They are headquartered in Baton Rouge.^[1]

In 2000, Graves married Gwen Drain, a McDonald's franchisee, who he had known since high school.^[6][7] They have two daughters and reside in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with their yellow Labrador, Raising Cane III.^[8]

An avid collector, Graves has loaned a 66-million-year-old triceratops skull to the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum.^[9] He has also loaned the hearse that carried Martin Luther King, Jr. to exhibits across the country.^[10]