FIA News
- John Bowen
- Joleen Flory
- John Nackley, Jr.
- Ken Wasco
CEC, Culinary Consulting, Certified Executive Chef, Nationally Recognized AwardWinning Executive Chef.
Steven M. Bergman is the founder and principal of CEC Culinary Consulting, LLC in Houston, Texas, a culinary consulting firm utilizing Chef Bergman’s strong knowledge, experience and skills in the culinary arts as well as his exceptional resources in the hospitality industry. Chef Bergman is widely recognized as an authority and teacher in many segments of the hospitality foodservice industry.
CEC Culinary Consulting provides client-based, customized culinary services for corporate and private clients, including restaurant startups, menu concept development, recipe development, menu engineering, culinary training, spa cuisine and recipe modification, food safety and HACCP compliance strategies, food production systems and auditing services. Through CEC, Chef Bergman has served local and national foodservice operators, K-12 governmental agencies and high profile institutional clients.
Mr. Bergman is currently consulting with Luby’s Culinary Services, a new division of Luby’s, to help build a healthcare and B&I contract services component for this company. In press releases, newspaper reports and stockholder reports, this venture is being called “the future” of the company.
Mr. Bergman’s formal training included Culinary Arts Certification in Houston, Texas. He continued his professional development at the Culinary Institute of America in New Hyde Park, New York. Chef Bergman maintains his professional credentials as a Certified Executive Chef, sanctioned by the American Culinary Federation, through attending seminars and culinary training at the annual ACF convention and the National Restaurant Association and NAFEM trade shows.
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John Bowen
Ph. D., Dean of the Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston.
John has presented marketing courses and seminars in Asia, Australia, Central America, Europe, Mexico and South America. He has published over 100 articles on marketing. John is a coauthor of Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, the leading hospitality marketing text worldwide. It is currently published in eight languages. He is also the coauthor of Restaurant Marketing for Owners and Managers. John won has won numerous awards for both his teaching and research. In a recent article in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Education he was listed as one of the five most influential hospitality management faculty based on the number of times his publications were cited by other scholars in their work. John’s industry experience was in the area of food and beverage. He worked in hotels, freestanding restaurants and as the corporate food and beverage manager for a hotel management company. He started his teaching career at Del Mar College’s restaurant management program in 1978. He was an assistant professor from 1980-1990 at the Conrad Hilton College. He left the University of Houston in 1990 to go to Bond University in Australia and returned to the United States to take a position at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1993. He came back the Conrad Hilton College in 2003. John teaching interests are in the area of marketing, database marketing, casino marketing and research methods. John was instrumental in helping DataDesigns, a supplier of database software to the gaming industry, develop a marketing research division. He has worked with casinos, hotels, country clubs in the area of database and direct marketing. John is the research chair of the Direct Marketing Association’s Travel and Hospitality Special Interest Group. John has served as a consultant to both large and small corporations. His research focus is on customer service, customer loyalty, and the development of service delivery systems, measurement of customer satisfaction, and distribution systems for service industries. John's formal education includes a B.S. in Hotel Administration from Cornell University, a MBA and M.S. from Corpus Christi State University, and a Ph. D. in marketing from Texas A&M University.
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Joleen Flory
The Elliot Leadership Institute, President & CEO
Foodservice veteran Joleen Flory was named President & CEO of The Elliot Leadership Institute in October 2007. Ms. Flory oversees all aspects of the not-for-profit organization.
Before joining The Elliot Leadership Institute Ms. Flory served as Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Training for Famous Dave’s of America. In that position she led human resources, organizational development, payroll, risk management, training and development. Prior to joining Famous Dave's, the 20-year industry veteran worked for Buffalo Wild Wings, Advantica Restaurant Group, Family Restaurants, Inc. and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Inc., where she held various positions in training, human resources and operations.
Ms. Flory has served on the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s (NRAEF) Certification Governing Board. Certified as both a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and a Foodservice Management Professional (FMP), she is also a member of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART) and a past President of that organization. Ms. Flory was recognized in 2006 as Motivator of the Year at the Elliot Leadership Conference and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Foodservice (DFS) from the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM) in 2005. She is also a member of the Society of Human Resources Professionals (SHRM), the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA) and the Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF).
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John Nackley, Jr.
Marketing Manager, MLB Advertising.
John is currently working as the marketing manager for Maslow Lumia Bartorillo Advertising, with responsibilities including marketing strategy development and execution, brand strategy, and client management. He works with several prominent foodservice equipment firms as well as several companies from other industries. John is a graduate of Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA. He completed both his graduate and under-graduate work at the university, with an MBA in marketing and a BS in Food Marketing. He finds the foodservice industry to be a dynamic, exciting industry with many challenges and opportunities.
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Moderator - Ken Wasco of Gordon Food Service.
Speak on average 280 days per year for the past 12 years. Recent gigs of significance - opening speaker at NRA 2006, ASHFSA Jill Gift 2 years in a row, DMA conference opener 6 times in the past 10 years. Have worked to enhance generational knowledge of consumerism, customer service and communication effectiveness with the senior leadership teams of various divisions for hundreds of corporations including in the past month Radisson Hotels, Amway Grand Plaza Hotels, the Club Managers Association, and Grand Hotel Mackinaw Island. ADA Fellows Conference. Have keynoted virtually every healthcare and education related state, regional or national foodservice conference including ADA, NACUFS, ARA, DMA, ASHFSA, HFM etc. Campus Lecturer for foodservice/ hospitality related majors and support staff skill enhancement for Indiana University, The University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Ohio University, Bowling Green University, Central Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, Delta College, Michigan State University. Author of "Live Like You Mean It" - published fall 2006
Ken Wasco Developing Effectiveness Everywhere
Gordon Food Service
USNational Group PO Box 1787
10011 - 4384
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501
616 717 4384
direct 800 968 6522
fax 616 717 9012