My perspective was built in kitchens, dining rooms, retail, catering, and production, and sharpened by executive accountability for people, P&L, contracts, and growth. I turn operational problems into clear decisions, stronger systems, and measurable outcomes.
For three decades I have led the full foodservice operating system: financial performance, people, sourcing, contracts, licensed-brand execution, concept development, production, facilities, technology, and growth. Crafted Spark Consulting makes that available in the form the work requires.
Selected experience
- Restaurant operations and frontline service.
- Multi-unit foodservice and retail leadership.
- Franchise and licensed-brand governance.
- Catering, production, and high-volume event execution.
- Contract and vendor accountability.
- P&L transformation and operating-model change.
- Sourcing, RFP, feasibility, and transition leadership.
- Executive team and culture development.
How I got here
Like a lot of people in this business, my first job was in a restaurant while I was still in high school. My affinity for hospitality and food kicked into high gear, and I have worked every side of it since. Front- and back-of-house roles in fine dining and upscale casual restaurants, including a spot on the opening team at The Palm in Atlanta and guest services at Pano Karatassos' Bluepointe; server and floor lead at Fifth Group's South City Kitchen; a run as an independent caterer; and two years as general manager of a full-service restaurant and bar off Grafton Street in Dublin.
Hospitality at scale
Then came a decade in event management and media relations. At Hope-Beckham PR & Event Management I was day-to-day client lead for hospitality, sports, and food and beverage accounts including Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Caribou Coffee, and the PGA Tour Championship. At JCB North America I led corporate events and product launches for a global manufacturing brand across national and international programs.
The work was hosting, feeding, and moving people: room blocks running to 1,500 nights for a single trade show, on-site catering and hospitality, travel and logistics, and the vendor, budget, and messaging management underneath all of it. Same discipline as running a dining program, different setting.
Fifteen years leading a $32M platform
In 2010 I joined Kennesaw State University and progressed through Assistant, Associate, Senior, and Executive Director, serving as the department's senior-most leader for nine years. I ran a $32M portfolio across 21 profit centers: residential dining and the meal plan program, high-volume scratch kitchens, a production commissary, eight national franchise brands alongside nine concepts we built ourselves, B2B catering, and enterprise delivery, serving more than 100,000 guest transactions a week.
I led the $140M competitive RFP that awarded the department's foodservice management contract, then held the contractor accountable to it. I built the annual operating budget line by line with the business office, engineered the financial statements our Board of Regents reviewed every month, authored the five-year business plan that tied our goals to our numbers, and presented both to the university president and the Regents' vice chancellor for finance.
I led the feasibility study and the full transition from contract-managed to self-operated foodservice, completed in 180 days with zero service disruption. More than 300 associates had the opportunity to stay on the contractor's payroll or move to direct employment in a newly formed department. We retained 85% of them.
Along the way I grew one of the most comprehensive sustainability programs in the field. The farm expanded from two acres to 25 USDA-certified acres, with eight cultivated field acres, 15,000 square feet of greenhouse production, and hydroponic facilities, producing more than 40,000 pounds of organic produce a year. Pre- and post-consumer composting closed the loop, 14,000 reusable containers stayed in active circulation, and every location ran on 100% compostable or renewable disposables. It delivered $240,000 in net cost savings and became the platform behind a National Restaurant Association Innovator of the Year award and a dedicated Operator Innovations Award for Closed Loop Waste.
