‘Stars’ tell of success in industry

Bob Crowley, vice president of operations for Chelo’s Hometown Bar & Grille, started his career washing pots and pans at a small Italian restaurant.
“I wasn’t a great student, but not because I wasn’t smart,” he told about 500 high school students at an Oct. 19 “Showcase of the Stars” event organized by the Providence-based Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance and Johnson & Wales University. “I didn’t really put in the effort.”
Crowley said he stayed in food service because he enjoyed the evening hours and the cash tips. Today, he is an executive in the industry that nurtured his career.
The organizers of the event, which involved students from 11 high schools in the state, hope that hearing stories such as Crowley’s will encourage young people to enter this field.
The leisure, hospitality and tourism sector employed 55,252 people in 2006, according to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training. It accounted for 13.2 percent of total private employment, and it’s growing. By 2014, the industry is expected to add 8,748 jobs.
But who is going to fill those positions?
It’s a question several executives in the industry worry about, said Robert Fink, assistant dean for the hospitality college at Johnson & Wales. His answer: “The future is diversity.”
That’s why several hospitality companies support the mission of MFHA, which is to promote diversity at every level of the organizational hierarchy in the food service and hospitality industry, he added.
The industry’s work force is already diverse, Fink noted, and though workers’ average income is only $17,388, compared with $33,732 for the private sector as a whole, it is easier for employees to move up through the ranks in the hospitality industry than in other industries.
“We go out with Showcase to tell these kids about the depth and breadth of careers in hospitality,” said Gerry Fernandez, founder and president of MFHA, who also graduated from Johnson & Wales, with a bachelor’s in food service management, and spent much of his career as a national account manager of foodservice sales for General Mills.
“We tell them, it’s OK to start … in the quick service restaurants,” he said. “For many of them, they can start in the dish room and move to the boardroom. That doesn’t happen in [other types of] large corporations anymore.”
Cheryl LaBanca, corporate sales manager for Johnson & Wales’ Radisson Airport Hotel in Warwick and a presenter at the Showcase panel, is an example of someone who started at the bottom and worked her way up.
LaBanca did not graduate from high school, though she earned her GED later on. She was a single mother at age 18. Her first job was as a receptionist for the university’s hospitality center. She took night classes and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management from Johnson & Wales. She worked her way from a clerical position to a sales manager position, while taking many jobs, from cleaning to food service, to get there.
Students asked the presenters how many hours they worked and how much money they made. Presenters responded that they work 40 to 65 hours per week or more. Paul Leech, chief administrative officer for Dunkin’ Brands Inc., told the students that senior vice presidents generally make $300,000 per year or more.
Students also showed interest in mentoring opportunities, and the presenters were very receptive, asking students to contact them after the event.
In the future, Fernandez said, he hopes to extend the one-day, career-focused event into a mentoring program in which students can shadow managers and executives. He is also planning to make the Showcase an annual event in Rhode Island.
Though MFHA is national in scope, Fernandez lives in Rhode Island, and he wants to give back to the state, he said.
“We also want to go into the schools to do presentations there, so kids get a real sense of what it takes to be successful in this industry and in life,” he said. •