Experience and Capabilities

Ron Paul, President
Ron Paul founded Technomic over 45 years ago. As President and CEO, he directs the firm and all its research and consulting engagements, covering almost every aspect of the foodservice business. Ron has written extensively about management and marketing topics, as well as a broad range of food and foodservice issues. He is a frequent industry speaker and is often quoted in trade, news and business media, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, CNN-TV and CNBC-TV.

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Bob Goldin, Executive Vice President
Bob Goldin has over 25 years of broad-based food industry experience, working as a consultant, researcher and industry executive. He leads Technomic's Food Supplier Practice Group, where he directs a wide range of projects for food manufacturers, distributors and related suppliers. Bob also has consulted extensively in nontraditional channels, including club stores and vending.

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Darren Tristano, Executive Vice President
Since 1993, Darren Tristano has been charged with the development and management of Technomic's Information Services division, where he also serves as a restaurant industry analyst and subject matter expert specializing in major national restaurant chain concept and menu development, and smaller emerging regional chains. His business unit develops many "industry standard" intelligence sources, including the Digital Resource Library, MenuMonitor, PriceMonitor and Technomic's Top 500 Leading Chain Restaurant report. Darren is often quoted in trade, news and business media.

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Gary Karp, Executive Vice President
Gary Karp has over 41 years' food industry experience, serving in general and senior management positions in marketing, sales, public relations, purchasing, strategic planning and category management. His experience spans foodservice, retail, convenience stores, club stores, vending, processing and distribution.

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Alan Hyatt, Vice President
Twenty-year foodservice veteran Alan Hyatt is responsible for the development of common-interest research studies, which provide Technomic's clients with actionable data that serves strategic and tactical plans. Additionally, his responsibilities include proprietary consulting and research in the areas of customer satisfaction, benchmarking, brand equity, sales process, broker effectiveness, competitive analysis and go-to-market strategy development and execution.

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Joe Pawlak, Vice President
Joseph Pawlak, a veteran of Technomic for over 20 years, has conducted a wide variety of food industry studies involving market planning, customer satisfaction benchmarking, new product development, food trends, opportunity analyses, volumetric modeling, concept testing and analyses of distribution systems. Notably, Pawlak has expertise in the areas of market forecasting, mergers & acquisition due diligence and brand equity analysis.

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David Henkes, Vice President
David Henkes is responsible for directing consulting and research assignments for food and equipment manufacturer, operator and trade association clients active in the food and foodservice industries. Henkes specializes in market and strategic planning, customer satisfaction benchmarking, opportunity analyses, acquisition evaluations, new product evaluations, concept testing, usage/attitude analyses, and distribution systems analyses.

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Patrick Noone, Vice President, Business Development
With more than 10 years experience in the research/consulting industry, Patrick Noone is integrally involved in the sales, development and marketing of Technomic's online resources, reports and custom studies—tools that provide clients with actionable industry data that supports their strategic and tactical business planning processes. He also manages Technomic's Business Development and Client Service teams.

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Neil Z. Stern, Senior Partner, McMillan|Doolittle
Neil is a senior partner of McMillan|Doolittle, an affiliate of Technomic that specializes in strategic planning and the development of new retail concepts. A recognized thought leader in the retail arena, Neil is editor of Retail Watch, widely regarded as the premier publication on new concepts and trends. His first book, Winning At Retail, was published in 2004.

Melissa Wilson, Principal
With more than 17 years consulting experience, Melissa Wilson brings solutions to chain restaurant operators focusing on marketing strategy and improving unit-level restaurant sales. Prior to joining Technomic, Melissa was President of Tom Feltenstein's Neighborhood Marketing Institute's Consulting Division, directing marketing and business expansion activities for a number of top chains.

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Tom Miner, Consulting Principal
Tom Miner brings over 25 years of restaurant industry experience to Technomic, specializing in brand positioning, promotional strategies, new menu/concept development, operations benchmarking and improvement, plus a host of other consulting and research activities. Tom also has extensive culinary experience, including over 10 years as an executive chef in New York and France.

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Gary Kawahara, Consulting Principal
Gary is the firm's expert in the club store/cash-and-carry channel and in redistribution. He has over 25 years of diversified foodservice industry experience in general management, purchasing, logistics, operations and B2B marketing, including Vice President of Foodservice/Midwest region, Director of Purchasing, and Branch Manager at Restaurant Depot, the industry's largest dedicated foodservice cash-n-carry operator.

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Chris Urban, Director, Knowledge Center
Chris Urban directs Technomic's Knowledge Center and can help access its unparalleled library of print journals, previously-published research, and online resources. She also manages Technomic's SmartSearch™ service, which offers literature searches, trend tracking, competitive analysis, acquisition identification and more.

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