Background & Experience
I’m a hospitality operator, strategist, and founder with over 20 years of experience building, scaling, and professionalizing restaurant and hotel businesses.
I’ve helped launch and grow 45+ hospitality ventures, working at the intersection of strategy, operations, and leadership. My work has included transforming founder-led businesses into professionally run organizations, improving profitability and execution, and positioning brands for multi-unit growth and private equity investment.
A born-and-bred New Yorker, I began my career in the trenches of the back of house. After attending Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, I was shaped by hands-on operating roles, including time at the Four Seasons D.C., and aboard the Crystal Symphony, where I circumnavigated the globe and deepened my respect for hospitality as both craft and discipline. I went on to build my operational and strategic foundation with industry leaders, including Harrah’s, TAO Group, SBE, and later as a Director of New School Consulting, and Corporate Director at AutoCamp, where I helped scale a PE-backed hospitality platform and contributed to the development of new brands.
I hold an Executive MBA from HEC Paris, where I sharpened my approach to growth strategy, organizational design, and leadership at scale — the same tools I now apply directly in the businesses I partner with.
Today, I work as a Fractional COO for restaurant and hotel brands, navigating growth inflection points, ownership dependency, and the transition from founder-driven execution to scalable leadership systems. Alongside this work, I’m building a category-defining hospitality venture of my own — applying the same rigor, clarity, and discipline I bring to the owners I partner with.
When not working, you can find me running ultrarelay races, surfing, hiking, or hosting dinner parties with friends and family.
Operating Principles
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I go first. I explore what others avoid and build what others hesitate to attempt — with intention, discipline, and conviction.
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I tell the truth early and act with integrity always. Progress depends on honesty, not comfort.
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I ask better questions, stay open to what I don’t know, and look beyond the obvious to find leverage others miss.
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I aim to get 1% better every week — in clarity, craft, and leadership — and expect the same commitment from the teams I work with.
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I share knowledge, elevate partners, and create value through contribution, not control.
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I bring presence, clarity, and forward motion — the kind that turns ideas into action and effort into results.
Leadership Philosophy
I believe leadership starts in the trenches — not behind glass walls. You can’t build culture from a spreadsheet or lead people you’ve never stood beside. The best leaders still know the work, respect the craft, and stay grounded when pressure hits.
Clarity beats charisma every time. Teams don’t just need speeches — they need direction. They need to know what great looks like, where they stand, and that someone is paying attention.
I’m not interested in perfection; I’m interested in progress. The healthiest organizations are honest with themselves — including where mistakes are owned — standards are clear, and excellence becomes a daily habit, not just a quarterly initiative.
My role is to bring rhythm to the chaos that takes over growing businesses. Set the cadence. Keep teams calm, curious, driven, and accountable. Culture isn’t something you declare — it’s something built through rituals, routines, systems, decisions, conversations, and follow-through.
Leadership, to me, is equal parts rigor and heart. Holding the line while keeping it human. Knowing when to push, when to pause, and when to listen.