The new Education Director for NACS CAFÉ, Nancy has been involved with the hospitality industry for 40 years. Her experience in the restaurant/foodservice segment includes training, R&D, management and senior operations assignments with ARAMark, Pizza Hut, Inc., Chi-Chi’s Mexican Restaurants, Duff’s Famous Smorgasbord, Friendly Ice Cream, and AFC Enterprises – Chesapeake Bagel Bakery and Church’s Chicken.
Paul is the managing partner of Panther Hospitality, a hotel consulting practice that was founded in 2005 with a passion for creating hotels of distinction, guiding developers and hoteliers in all aspects of their businesses from property development to the successful operating of a hotel. Paul also draws upon his 25+ years in the hospitality industry to provide hospitality litigation support, including expert witness services. Paul is an adjunct professor of Hotel Management at Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business School of Hospitality.
Cristina works directly with our clients, providing menu evaluation and modification for nutrition standards compliance and diet design. Cristina has specialized training in clinical nutrition, food safety, and health education, and routinely collaborates on projects with community agencies, healthcare providers, and foodservice organizations. Cristina is past President of the Georgia Dietetic Association and the Greater Atlanta Dietetic Association. She was named Georgia’s 2007 Outstanding Dietitian of the Year and was the 2003 Emerging Leader in Dietetics selected by the American Dietetic Association. Cristina has been featured and quoted on numerous national TV stations and in print releases. Cristina is currently the GA Tech University Nutritionist and supports the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta system with weight loss and diabetes education programs. She is an active blogger on nutrition and wellness issues.
Mike Wien is an adjunct professor of marketing in the Hospitality School at Georgia State University and the founding partner at Wien & Associates where he acts in the role of chief marketing officer for multiple entrepreneurial firms on a part time basis. Mike specializes in helping entrepreneurs create marketing and business development strategies and personalized plans to uncover often overlooked ways to grow revenue.
Mike started his career in brand management at Frito Lay where he was responsible for introducing the company’s biggest failure (FANTASTIX) and then introducing the company’s biggest success (TOSTITOS). He moved on to PepsiCo (the parent company) as director of brand management for the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Group. Next, he applied his consumer products experience to Omni Hotels as their global vice president of marketing and sales. This led to the position of Group Senior Vice President with CitiBank with responsibility for marketing and new product development in Illinois. Cole Taylor Bank hired Wien to head up marketing and handle investor relations for their initial public offering. After the IPO, he joined Deloitte as part of the national marketing team and eight years later, left the big corporate life to start out on his own.
Mike has an MBA in Marketing from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a B.S in business from Colorado State University.
A veteran of the hospitality industry, Robin has worked for several large restaurant chains including sixteen years at The HoneyBaked Ham Company of Georgia where she worked in a variety of retail management, operations support and training roles. For seven years, she was Director of National Field Training for Church’s Chicken leading the training organization in support of over 1200 domestic restaurants. Her proudest professional accomplishment was receiving the 2004 Church's Chicken Spirit Award for both personal and professional achievement.
In 2007, she founded Creating Simplicity, LLC and now consults in a variety of areas including training, project management, operations, and organizing. Her partial client list includes The Coca-Cola Company, Church's Chicken, Denny's, Toys R Us, FaithBridge Foster Care and the National Association of Convenience Stores. She is also a consulting team member for Designs on Talent, LLC and LTV Marketing, Inc. Robin is an active member of the National Association of Professional Organizers. Robin graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a B.S. in Sociology.