Cutshaw serves as the executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Cajun Operating Company, a private company based in Atlanta, Ga. Cajun is the operator of Church’s Chicken globally. Cutshaw manages the legal affairs of the company and is responsible for global expansion of the brand. As of 2006, the Church’s system had 1,600 locations worldwide in 25 countries and territories, with system sales exceeding $1 billion. He has a wide range of work experience, including management, foreign policy, legal, and business. He was formerly a partner with Holland & Knight, LLP, one of the larger law firms in the world. His practice focused on global business transactions.
Cutshaw has served as an adjunct professor at Emory University, Georgia Tech, and Georgia State University (GSU), teaching global business to graduate students. He is past chairman of the advisory board for the Center for Global Business Leadership at GSU, established in 2003. He is a dean, co-founder, and co-owner of Georgian American University (GAU), founded in 2004 in Tbilisi, Georgia. GAU is the first university in the Republic of Georgia offering a juris doctor degree. Cutshaw is a principal of Kochhar Business Services, Kochhar LexServe, and Pinkerton India, located in New Delhi, India. He is an investor in enterprises operating in Tennessee and South Dakota focused on real estate management and in Texas focused on leasehold interests in operating oil wells. Cutshaw is recognized for his expertise in international expositions. He has served as an adviser to the Bureau of International Expositions, a treaty organization in Paris, France, responsible for sanctioning World Expositions. He serves as a director for the nonprofit ICA (India, China, and America) Institute, Friends of India, and other nonprofit non-governmental organizations (NGOs). He serves as the president and co-chairman of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, an NGO established in 1966 that has introduced thousands of young political leaders in more than 50 countries to the political process. He serves on the Bush Administration Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. He is also a member of the board of directors of Haven Trust Bank, a community bank in metro Atlanta.
In the restaurant industry, Cutshaw was co-founder of several casual dining restaurants known as Cheers Funeatery in the Tri-Cities, Tenn. He was an original partner of the Red Hot & Blue restaurant chain founded in Arlington, Va. He is co-founder of Let’s Go Back, LLC, the first franchisee of the Flying Biscuit restaurants in Atlanta, with two units opening in 2007 and three units in 2008. He is active with the International Franchise Association and the National Restaurant Association.
Cutshaw began his professional career in 1978. In 1985, he accepted a political appointment to serve six years with the administrations of President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush at the U.S. Commerce Department in various international trade positions involving export/import regulatory programs. Cutshaw served as deputy and acting assistant secretary overseeing and managing the export enforcement program of the Commerce Department. Prior to his political appointment, he served as senior counsel for the 1982 World's Fair, senior attorney for the Tennessee Legislature, manager of a U.S. Senate campaign, and assistant in a Tennessee district attorney general office. He began working in his family business at a young age by delivering products to customers in East Tennessee. He serves on several nonprofit boards of directors. His professional work, combined with his business and entrepreneurial ventures, represent a broad spectrum in business, law, government, and politics. He serves on advisory boards for the National Federation of Indian American Associations (the largest umbrella organization for Indian American groups), the U.S.-Indian American Chamber, the Georgia Indian American Chamber, and other Indian groups.
Cutshaw lectures and publishes extensively on U.S. and global business and legal issues and has testified before the U.S. Congress. He serves or has served in various civic and professional positions including the Council on Foreign Relations; board of directors, World Trade Center Atlanta; council co-chair, American Council of Young Political Leaders; board of directors, U.S. North African Business Council; advisory board, China Research Center; founder and chairman, Atlanta Roundtable; co-founder, Awakening, Inc.; Atlanta Chambers; Lifetime Sigma Chi; American University Law Advisory Council; and member, Southern Center for International Studies and other organizations. He formerly served on the federal government’s Industry Advisory Committee for Customs and Trade (1993–96); international chairman, Atlanta Boy Scouts; Atlanta Woodruff Arts Council; University of Tennessee Alumni Board and Law School Advisory Board; vice chairman, Tennessee Republican Party; chairman, Legislation and Insurance Committees, Tennessee Bar Association. He represented Vietnam at the 1996 Olympics.
Cutshaw is a member of the International Bar, American Bar, Federal Bar, District of Columbia Bar, Georgia Bar, Tennessee Bar, Customs Bar, Atlanta Bar, and the Inter-Pacific Bar (vice chairman, International Trade Committee).
He received a Master of Laws in international studies degree from American University (1987), a juris doctor in business law from the University of Tennessee (1978), and a bachelor of arts degree in public administration from the University of Tennessee (1975). He received two academic scholarships.
He serves on the advisory board for Thomson West's Corporate Counsel's International Adviser, International Quarterly, and Corporate Counsel’s Guide to Importing Under United States Customs Laws publications.