Wednesday, September 11, 2019: Restaurant Program is Sure to Whet your Appetite!

Rick Garcia in an operations executive in the fast casual restaurant space.  His specialty is coming into organizations to drive operational results through the development and implementation of systems.  His focus is on ensuring that high performing work teams are in place in order to deliver improved sales and profits.  Rick has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies including McDonald’s Corporation, H&R Block, and Nordstrom as well as smaller multi units establishments.  He has a business degree from USC and has volunteers in many capacities for the University.  He is currently serving as the Chairman of the USC Marshall School of Business Alumni Association.  He is an avid skier and has a passion for travel.

Paul Potvin, MBA, CPA.  Mr. Potvin has been the Chief Financial Officer for California Fish Grill since 2014 which has grown from eight locations to twenty eight locations.  Mr. Potvin has over 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry.  He served as Chief Financial Officer of Elephant Bar Restaurant from 2006–2014 and Patina Group/Restaurant Associates from 2001-2006.  From 1998-2001, he served in as Director of Finance for Acapulco Restaurants and Controller for the combined Acapulco/El Torito Restaurants.  Before entering the restaurant business, Mr. Potvin was part of Mattel, Inc doing SEC Report and Worldwide Consolidation.  Additionally, he started his career as an auditor for Deloitte & Touche LLP.  He holds a MBA in finance from Loyola Marymount University and an undergraduate degree in Business Economics from UC Santa Barbara.  

Revolutionizing the gourmet fast-casual dining experience, Jonathan Rollo, “Commander-in-Leaf” of Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop, has always had an appetite for fresh ingredients and living a healthy life. Rollo embarked on his passion project in 2008 opening his first Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop in Beverly Hills. 10 years later, with the newest Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop open at the USC Village in Los Angeles, CA, the farm-to-face culinary concept embodies Rollo’s wellness philosophy of using local, fresh, natural and organic ingredients that are both delicious and wholesome. Creating authentic, community-based dining experiences is what separates Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop from other restaurants in the healthy-living marketplace. With a full bar including fresh craft cocktails, indoor and outdoor patio seating, and on-site chef’s garden, Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop is the modern farm stand. Featured regularly in magazines and on TV, Jon and Greenleaf have garnered a celebrity following that proudly advocates for the brand. Justin Timberlake calls Greenleaf his “Go-To LA caterer” in Angeleno Magazine.  And, Oprah called Jon “a healthy magician”.  Greenleaf has also won accolades like “Best Turkey Sandwich in America” – Hospitality Magazine, and “LA’s Best Lunch Spots” – LA Magazine.  Jon’s regular apprearences on Home & Family, CBS, NBC, and ABC are also fun ways to see what he’s got cooking in the Greenleaf kitchens! In Jon’s free time, he can be found racing triathlons, working out at Barry’s Bootcamp and raising his daughter and son with his husband, Joey.

@ChefJonRollo | www.greenleafgourmetchopshop.com

Kevin McCarney is the Founder and CEO of Poquito Más ®. He has worked his way up from being a janitor at age 13 to being a doorman at Grauman’s Chinese Theater during his high school years (where he met his wife of 30 years). He went on to work in hospitality with independent and chain restaurants gaining experience at all levels of the business.  At age 29 he left the safety of the corporate world behind and take the risk of going out on his own. He built the first Poquito Más restaurant in 1984 calling it  “Fresh Mexican Cuisine.”  The first few years in business he lived in a converted garage just up the street. It had a shower and a bed...and nothing else.  Mr. McCarney says, "that was perfect, since 20 hours a day I was in the restaurant. I loved every minute of it.”  Poquito Mas ® makes all food from scratch daily; it has done so for over 34 years. Freshness has been a passion for Poquito Mas. The desire to create a fresh corn tortilla for every taco inspired Kevin to design, develop and manufacture a corn tortilla press made of aluminum and stainless steel.  The press holds three patents and is listed with NSF. To enhance the fresh tortilla operation, he created the Chef Mex® Brand which distributes organic corn masa flour for corn tortillas.  Chef Mex® also owns and distributes Nature’s Grill® Hot Pepper Salsa. This is just the start! Several additional organic items are in the works.  Poquito Mas takes pride in developing people from within. The very first co-worker hired in 1984 is still working with Poquito Mas today. The first franchise was to a 20 year Poquito Mas co-worker who now owns three. Patty Reveles, who has worked with Poquito Mas  for over 26 years, was named president last year.  She and Kevin work as a team to make Poqutio Mas® a little better every day. Kevin was voted Chairman of the Board of the California Restaurant Association for the 2013/14 year and still attends regular CRA meetings and travels to Sacramento to advocate for small business. Read more about Kevin McCarney's journey to success at https://www.poquitomas.com/story/mucho-mas-gracias/.

 David Bonrouhi, Managing Director of Calabasas Capital, serves on the board of ACG101 and will be presenting this  program's industry overview. Calabasas Capital is a boutique investment banking firm providing sellside and buyside M&A advisory and capital raising services to lower-middle-market privately-held companies, with particular expertise in consumer products and services, industrial manufacturing and services, technology and business services. David has over 20 years of investment banking and private equity experience with such firms as Merrill Lynch and UnionBanCal Equities. David is a former CPA and has an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Studies from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management; and a Masters in Tax and a B.S. in Accounting from Miami of Ohio. 

Program Moderator: Jeff Bobrosky, CPA, is a partner with CohnReznick and has more than 20 years of accounting, auditing, and business advisory experience serving privately held and public companies in the emerging and middle markets as well as mature companies in the Fortune 100 marketplace.  Jeff serves as CohnReznick’s Hospitality Industry Practice Leader in the West Region and the Los Angeles office Technology Industry Practice Leader.  Additionally, he is the Professional Practice Leader and Audit Division Leader for CohnReznick’s Woodland Hills and Los Angeles offices.