SPEAKER BIOS

Edward (Ned) Barker, President, Grill Ventures Consulting, Inc.

Edward (Ned) Barker, President of Grill Ventures, Inc., owns/operates a consulting firm specializing in assistance to the restaurant and hospitality industries. Consulting projects span numerous hotels and restaurant chain brands. Some of those brands have included the Atlanta Food Group, InterContinental Hotels Group, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn, Four Points By Sheraton and Kona Grill. Prior to Grill Ventures Consulting, Inc., Ned held numerous hotel F&B positions, the most recent being Vice President F&B, Franchise F&B, InterContinental Hotels Group. During his time in the industry, Ned has written or re-written the F&B Standards for 3 hotel brands and engaged the IHG franchise community through the creation of the F&B Council (IHG franchisee’ multi-unit F&B VP’s) which still meets today, more than ten years later.

Workshop: Creative Approaches to Catering Sales
Session: Room Service in the 21st Century: Can It Be Profitable?

Brit Bertino, CSEP, Special Events Director, powerevents

Since opening her own company in 2002, Brit Bertino is fast becoming one of the most sought after new special event planners. With almost 10 years of experience in the Northern California and the Greater Las Vegas area, she has built outstanding relationships with some of the top vendors in the industry. With her innovative ideas and unique solutions, she surpasses at providing her clients with something beyond their expectations, regardless of budget.

Brit has honorably attained her CSEP. The CSEP designation (Certified Special Events Professional) is the hallmark of professional achievement in the special events industry. As a member of the National Association of Catering Executives and the International Special Events Society Brit has had complete event planning training and upholds all the Code of Ethics and Professional Standards set by both Associations. This, and Brit’s solid organizational skills, attention to detail and fun sense of humor make her a great pleasure to work with.

Session: Economical & Innovative Approaches to Themed Events

Raymond Burton, CFBE,CHA,CHT, Senior Corporate Food & Beverage Consultant, InterContinental Hotels Group

Raymond Burton is senior corporate food and beverage consultant for InterContinental Hotels Group. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC of the United Kingdom is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms. An industry veteran of more than 23 years, Burton is responsible in consulting of food and beverage programs for Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

Workshop: Certified Food & Beverage Executive Exam
Session: Making Your Hotel Restaurant a Great Local Destination

Tim Clarke, Vice President Strategic Marketing, Avendra LLC

Tim Clarke oversees Avendra’s growth into targeted market segments including lodging, casinos, cruise, higher education, and other hospitality segments. He educates key stakeholders on how to reduce costs in the supply chain, manage risk and utilize best practices in procurement. Before joining Avendra, Mr. Clarke was senior director of customer strategy for Siebel Systems, responsible for leading large cross-functional teams to solve customer business problems. Mr. Clarke graduated with distinction from the University of Rochester with a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia Business School in New York.

Session: Improving Supply Chain Capabilities to Deliver Favorable Business Outcomes

Andrew Economon, Director of Food & Beverage, The Mirage Las Vegas

Andrew Economon is the Director of Food & Beverage at The Mirage and has had an extensive career in the hospitality industry working with companies such as Westin, Omni and Isle of Capri, spanning almost 30 years. Starting his career as a cook and progressing to the front of house, Andrew’s experience has taken him around the United States and to his family roots in Greece, and throughout Europe. He is an operational expert, working in the corporate environment of Las Vegas while remaining completely focused on overall service and the guest experience.

Session: The Service Experience: What It Really Takes to be Different and Better

Jennifer Johanson, President and CEO, EDG Interior Architecture + Design

Jennifer Johanson has nearly 20 years' experience in developing strategic restaurant and foodservice concepts. Her clients include many of the premier chefs in the United States such as Wolfgang Puck, Joachim Splichal, Kent Rathbun, Hubert Keller, and Bradley Ogden. In addition, Jennifer has guided the design of new hotel restaurant venues for Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Conrad, Hilton Hotels, Marriott and Caesars Palace. She offers a solid understanding of restaurant design and strategic brand development along with a balance of wit, partnership and focused leadership. Jennifer holds an architecture degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Session: Think like a Restaurateur: Repositioning Hotel Restaurants to Expand Target Audiences and Improve Revenue Performance

Izzy Kharasch, President, Hospitality Works, Inc.

HWI is an operational foodservice consulting, training and management firm founded in 1987. Izzy is known for implementing profitable food and beverage programs for his hotel, restaurant, private clubs and gaming clients around the world. Izzy is the sought after expert in successful menu design, menu analysis and menu re-engineering.

Super Session: Increase Food and Beverage Sales Without Raising the Price
Session: Give Hotel Guests What They Want: An Opportunity To Spend More
Money In Your Hotel!

Tim Kirkland, CEO, Renegade Hospitality Group

Tim Kirkland is an author, speaker and consultant focusing on sales-building, service-energizing and team-building in the foodservice industry. His best-selling book, “The Renegade Server”, is used in over 5,000 restaurants, bars, nightclubs and hotels worldwide to train and inspire front-line crews to sell more and serve better. During his 20+ years in the hospitality industry, Tim has led training departments for numerous respected restaurant and nightclub brands and has been award-winning operator and successful restaurateur. He is the exclusive certified trainer and presenter for Sullivision.com, whose clients include Walt Disney, McDonald’s, Starbucks, American Express, Cheesecake Factory, Anheuser-Busch, Brinker International and more. Tim is the founder of Renegade Hospitality Group, which serves as a professional advisory resource to the restaurant, hotel, retails and customer service industries.

Super Session: Finders Keepers: How to Recruit, Engage and Retain a Top Team

Mark McWilliams, English Department, United States Naval Academy

Mark McWilliams teaches literature at the United States Naval Academy. His work on food and American culture has appeared in numerous scholarly journals and in the Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery.

Session: Serving Nostalgia: The Origins of American Comfort Food

Corey Nyman, Director of Operations, The Nyman Group

Corey T. Nyman currently serves as the Director of Operations for The Nyman Group Ltd., a boutique hospitality-consulting firm with offices in Scottsdale, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada and New York. A veteran of the Hospitality Industry with over 17 years of experience, Nyman’s abilities have allowed him to work with Celebrity Chefs, National & International Hospitality/Hotel Corporations and Independent Restaurants. Specializing in service, training, operations and problem analysis, Nyman's hands on experience allows him a unique perspective on the challenges of our industry.

Session: The Service Experience: What It Really Takes to be Different and Better

Robert Nyman, President, The Nyman Group

Robert J. Nyman, President of The Nyman Group, an organization of hands-on operating professionals, specializes in restaurant management, consulting services for the restaurant and hospitality industry. Robert has devoted his experience and energies to directing food service programs in the ever-changing marketplace. The majority of clients are "Blue-chip" organizations requiring expertise in a total scope from restaurant management, consulting, hotels, food service programs and mixed-use developments. Robert strives for the best solution to the myriad of today's problems. Utilizing the latest technological tools, based on strong foundations of logic and broad experience, clients have dubbed Nyman the “Expert's Expert".

Session: The Service Experience: What It Really Takes to be Different and Better

Mark Petruzzi, VP Certification, Green Seal, Inc.

Mark has been a mainstay of Green Seal's Certification Program for ten years. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.S. in Environmental Engineering from George Washington University. His other areas of expertise include solid waste, environmental compliance and energy efficiency. Mark has served on committees for the USGBC and AH&LA and has been a contributing editor for Lodging Magazine.

Session: Finding Big Bucks in Energy Management Strategies

Guy J. Rigby, Vice President, Food and Beverage - The Americas,
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

With a degree from a hotel school in Cheltenham, England, Guy Rigby set his sights on the luxury end of the business and joined the Ritz Hotel in London as Assistant Food & Beverage Manager. By the age of 26 he had been appointed Resident Manager of Horsted Place, a small luxury country house hotel in Sussex. A desire for an international career brought him to North America, and in 1990 he joined Four Seasons Hotels as Director of Food and Beverage at the Houston property. In 1997, he was appointed Executive Assistant Manager at Four Seasons Hotel Toronto and, in 2000, obtained his first General Manager posting at The Regent Bangkok. From Asia, Guy moved to New York as General Manager at The Pierre. When The Pierre’s lease was sold in 2005, Guy relocated to Four Seasons Vancouver as General Manager. As Vice President of Food and Beverage – Americas, Guy is now based at the Corporate Office in Toronto.

Session: Think like a Restaurateur: Repositioning Hotel Restaurants to Expand Target Audiences and Improve Revenue Performance

T.J. Schier, President and Founder, Incentivize Solutions (2001) and p.o.d. Training (2005)

T.J. Schier provides keynote addresses, consulting and training materials on motivating and training today’s generation and enhancing guest service and sales. He works with many of today’s leading chains and has authored a variety of books and articles, developed server training kits and created the Bartender M.D. (Mobile Device), a training tool for servers and bartenders. Frequently featured or quoted in Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, Nation’s Restaurant News, Franchise Times, and other leading publications, Schier founded both Incentivize Solutions and p.o.d. Training, an innovative training approach focused on delivering training in handheld video devices. He is also a member of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s HR Advisory Council.

Session: Moving Employees from 'Whatever' to 'Whatever it Takes'

Walt Sheffler, Senior Vice President of Strategic Contracting, Avendra, LLC

As senior vice president of strategic contracting at Avendra, Walt Sheffler manages supply chain initiatives and oversees a team of experts responsible for contracting goods and services totaling $3 billion dollars in annual spend. Avendra’s customer base includes large hotel management companies, resorts, casinos, golf clubs and universities in nearly 5,000 locations across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Sheffler came to Avendra from Marriott International where he was vice president of procurement, responsible for food and beverage procurement activities worldwide. Sheffler is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University.

Session: Improving Supply Chain Capabilities to Deliver Favorable Business Outcomes

Paul Snyder, Vice President, Operations Integration - Americas, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC

As Vice President, Operations Integration, Paul oversees all cross-portfolio operations and strategic implementation initiatives for IHG’s over 3,300 owned, managed and franchised hotels in North and South America. He works extensively on deployment of global programs throughout IHG’s branda portfolio including F&B delivery, brand repositioning, corporate responsibility platforms, and procurement strategies among others. He leads the Americas Operations Council and is the Americas representative on IHG’s Global Operations Council.

A six-year veteran of IHG, Paul has previously held leadership positions in Development, Operations and Brand Management. He created IHG’s B2B marketing platforms, executed a number of Operations Initiatives, and has implemented some of the largest sustainability initiatives undertaken by IHG. Paul has also successfully co-led IHG’s pursuit of the U.S. government’s largest ever hotel privatisation contract.

Prior to IHG, Paul worked in the Brand Management, IT, and Development organizations of Marriott International. He began his career in the hospitality industry with Winegardner & Hammons, Inc., on property where he worked from the line level into managerial positions in both Food & Beverage and Rooms departments.

Paul earned a bachelor’s of arts degree in English Literature from Lawrence University and a master of business administration degree from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.

Session: The Top 10 Control Processes for Banquet & Room Service F&B Operations

Super Session: Invest to Produce Revenue

Jon Taffer, President, Nightclub and Bar Media Group

A 28-year hospitality veteran, Jon Taffer is an internationally recognized & award-winning bar, nightclub & restaurant operator, owner and concept developer. His unique expertise spans the food and beverage, hotel and hospitality arenas, as his experience includes hands-on experience in the creation, development and management of full-service, limited-service, quick-serve and large theme restaurants, resort facilities, live entertainment venues, nightclubs, specialty concept clubs and other trendsetting food and beverage formats. Jon’s projects and Taffer Dynamics’ clients have included Ritz-Carlton Hotels, InterContinental Hotel Group, Marriott Hotels, Molson-Coors Canada, DB Brewery-New Zealand, Rainforest Café, The Hollywood Palace and many, many others worldwide. Jon is also a Founding Member of Nightclub & Bar Magazine’s Advisory Board.

Session: Maximizing RevPOR with Proven Zone Marketing Programs

Jeff Thredgold, President, CSP, Thredgold Economic Associates

Jeff is the only economist in the world to have ever received the designation of Certified Speaking Professional, the highest earned designation in professional speaking. 23 years with $105 billion banking giant KeyCorp, as SVP & Chief Economist. Currently serves as economic consultant to $55 billion Zions Bancorporation. Jeff has appeared dozens of times on CNBC-TV, CNN, Jeff has been writing a weekly economic and financial newsletter, for 34 years. His latest book, econAmerica, was released in July 2007 Other books include A Parent’s Letter to My Children in School; and On The One Hand…The Economist’s Joke Book.

Session: Emerging from Recession Stronger than Ever!

Byron Vaughan, Associate Publisher, Santé Magazine

Byron Vaughan is the Associate Publisher of Santé magazine. In addition to an extensive business publishing background he is an accomplished photographer and an avid home chef.

Session:CATERING ALERT! Are You Making the Most of Your Beverage Program?

Chris Weinberg, CEO, The BarFly Group

Chris Weinberg is the CEO of The BarFly Group, a national restaurant consulting and operations management company. Having opened and managed more than 250 restaurants worldwide, Chris has served as the COO of a publicly traded company, as president of two regional chains, and as an owner/operator of several high-volume restaurants. A nationally recognized speaker, Chris connects with audiences ranging from operators to executives, ensuring relevant, interesting insights for everyone.

Workshop: P & L Management Made Easy
Session: Top Tips EVERY Restaurateur Should Know to Ensure Longevity