If someone asked you what you do at Restaurant Equipment World, what would you say?
I lead an amazing team of talented kitchen equipment professionals who take great care of our customers. I also spend a lot with end-users on site at their locations. I believe the best way to serve a commercial foodservice operator is to meet their people, understand their operations/challenges and engage in face-to-face interactions.
What is special about Restaurant Equipment World?
I love that we turn our customer's dreams into reality. We partner with restaurants and other foodservice establishment for long term success, not simply to make a single kitchen equipment sale. I enjoy looking at a space and conceptualizing the perfect workflow and operational aspects for a particular restaurant concept. We work with our restaurant equipment vendors to specify the exact right equipment for their operation. It's a wonderful feeling to walk into an establishment and see proper flow, great service and great consistent food q
When was the craziest day at the office?
We received an e-mail stating, We want to purchase $2 million worth of restaurant equipment. We are sending two 747's to the US in 8 days. Can you make this happen?. My response... Yes, send me $1 million dollars. The next day, the million dollars arrived and we had 1,500 pieces of commercial kitchen equipment manufactured and shipped 8 days later. We successfully pulled off what is likely one of the fasted built large scale commercial kitchens in the history of the restaurant equipment industry
Favorite sport?
Snow skiing (despite living in Florida!) - I also love anything watersports related (which fits much better in Florida!)
How many lick does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
We do a lot of commercial kitchen business with the US government and military, therefore I know how to keep a secret... including the highly classified definitive answer to this question.
What would you do for a Klondike Bar?
I'd sell a new commercial freezer to whomever I got it from, that way they can display the rest of their Klondike's and build their business!
The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?
I don't do well choosing one group (or even type of music for that matter)... I love all types of music and enjoy a wide variety - one minute I may be listening to 80's, then 90's, country, acoustic, pop, modern - my tastes run the gambit. I especially love LIVE music, one of the many reasons I love cities such as New Orleans, Austin, and Nashville.
If you could visit or live in any place in the world, where would it be?
I'm already living exactly where I desire here in Florida! I travel 250+ days per year so have the pleasure of experiencing cities/states/countries throughout the world - and I truly enjoy so many of them - but when all is said and done, Orlando is home and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Favorite shape?
Circle. Everything in life goes in cycles, each swing around the circle is an opportunity to learn from the past and grow doing things even better in the future.
Pick one celebrity to sit next to in a plane.
Harrison Ford (he's a fellow pilot so we'd likely be sitting together in the cockpit)
You're stuck on an island. You have endless supply of only one food. What is it?
Peanut butter and jelly. Being in the commercial kitchen industry, I have the pleasure of eating in some of the absolute best restaurants in the world - the best chefs, the best restaurant equipment, the best operations - yet I absolutely love a simple PB&J sandwich.
Favorite music album?
Wow... I'm looking at my iPhone and I have 1,400 albums... picking one is like asking me to pick my favorite child! I'll go with Green Day's Time of your Life single album. A very special song to me that's was my theme song of sorts while I was overcoming surviving crashing an airplane crash - and working on getting back into the cockpit to fly the skies again!
