Meet The IHS Team
Your Advisors in Creating World Class Food Service Operations
Gary Gunderson, FMP
Principal
Gary's background includes extensive business dining and food and beverage experience in the hotel, restaurant and transportation industries. His experience includes more than 30 years in business dining and he has completed project work in organizational development, master planning, operations reviews, and design services. He has earned a reputation for his work creating "center-of-excellence" employee food service operations in the United States, Singapore, China, Mexico and Brazil.Key areas of expertise include strong operations experience, strategic planning, financial analysis, contract negotiations and compliance, and operator selection processes.
Gary has been a featured speaker at several food service industry conferences. He also has been featured in a number of professional trade publications, including Food Management Magazine, Restaurant and Institutions Magazine, and Nations Restaurant News.
Gary is an active member and former President of the Society for Food Service Management (SFM). He is the recipient of the SFM's "Lifetime Achievement" and "President's" award. In 2004, he received IFMA's Silver Plate Award in the Business & Industry/food service Management category.
Matt Mundok, FMP
Principal
Matt's experience includes more than 20 years of consulting and on-site operations management experience in business dining, college and university dining and hospital food service. His experience also includes hospitality design services work in the U.S., Canada and Europe. A proven project manager, Matt's knowledge and leadership of food service operator selection processes, contract negotiations, program assessments and strategic planning have earned him high marks with clients, partners and service providers.Matt has successfully led numerous strategic planning and operator selection projects for clients across the country. The foundation of Matt's approach stems from his unique background in the hospitality industry. This experience includes years of operational management with several of the most admired contract service providers, directing a world-class global hospitality program at MBNA America Bank and leading dozens of client projects as a strategist and project manager. Matt's customizes every assignment to ensure results are positive, innovation, fair to all parties involved and sustainable.
Matt leads the Restaurant and Food Service Community of Practice at the International Facilities Managers Associations (IFMA) whereby he develops and creates food service related education for facility managers. He is also an active member of the National Restaurant Association, NACAS and SFM. Matt serves on the advisory board and speaks regularly at Penn State University, School of Hospitality Management.
Maggie Stefanek, RD, LD
Senior Advisor
Over the past 20 years, Maggie has successfully worked as a hospitality consultant. Throughout her consulting career she has been involved in projects that included operations reviews, benchmarking, request for proposal processes, contract negotiations, auxiliary services staffing assessments, financial reviews, One Card implementation, asset management reviews, development of operations manuals, and strategic planning for various clients throughout the US in the corporate business dining, campus dining, and healthcare sectors.Maggie was employed by Stouffer's Corporation in their Management Food Service Division, where she directed numerous on-site dining facilities in Northeast Ohio. She was later promoted to Regional Staff Marketing Manager responsible for promotions, marketing, sales, as well as new facility openings. In 1989, she went to work with Cini-Little International, food service consultants, as a Project Coordinator. She moved to Corporate Dining, Inc. as a Project Manager in 1991 and was promoted to Principal in 2007. Maggie began her career with IHS in 2010.
Maggie graduated from the University of Dayton with a Bachelor of Science degree in Dietetics. She is registered by the American Dietetic Association and licensed by the State of Ohio. Maggie is a member of the Kent State University Hospitality Management Advisory Board, a current member of the Society for food service Management, the American Dietetic Association, the Ohio Dietetic Association, the Cleveland Dietetic Association and the Dietitians in Business and Communications. She has been a featured speaker for the Society for food service Management as well as the Ohio Dietetic Association, the Cleveland Dietetic Associations and the Case Western Reserve University Dietetic Internship Program. She is the recipient of the annual Society for food service Management Spirit Award.
Rob Schwartz, MBA
Senior Associate
Rob has over 35 years' experience in the hospitality industry that includes foodservice contract management with corporations, colleges and health care organizations, as well as private restaurants. He has been providing foodservice management advisory services for the past 10 years across North America. He received his MBA from the Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University and majored in Hospitality Management. He received his BA from Alma College (Alma, MI) with a Business Administration major.Rob's experience includes operational and financial consulting and management for foodservice operations in corporations, colleges, hospitals and cultural institutions. These services include operator transition leadership, operational analysis, quality controls and standards assessments, contract compliance, financial audits (both outsourced and self-operated), operator selection processes (RFP), concept development, space programming and feasibility studies. His international experience includes three (3) years in Mexico focused on the Maquiladora industry on the border, as well as project consulting/analysis in Argentina. Rob is fluent in Spanish.
Healthcare restructuring initiatives have changed the types of food service operations and facilities that are required today and have broadened the diversity of patient, resident and client meal service needs. In response, Ed works with healthcare clients to assess operational and physical implementation of new technologies and procedures, all aimed at improving overall efficiency and quality of health care food service operations.
Rob is a member of IFMA and strong advocate of lifelong learning and has graduated or been certified in the following:
• Management Leadership Seminar – Stanford University
• Strategic Leadership Institute – Penn State University
• "Serve Safe" N.R.A. certified
• "CQI" – offered through Texas Instruments
• Dale Carnegie programs
• Karass Negotiating Skills
• "Targeted Selection" interviewing skills
• Microsoft Office – fully competent with all products
Russ Benson, FMP
Senior Associate
After graduating from Johnson & Wales University with degrees in Culinary Arts and Food Service Management, Russ worked in the hotel industry for 5 years, primarily at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago in various department head positions.The vast majority of Russ' career has been in corporate dining, where for 10 years, he was a senior member of the MBNA America Bank client liaison team managing over $40M in café and catering volume. Most recently, Russ was the Division Vice President for Food For Thought Enterprises where he led the operations and business development teams for this boutique niche operator in Chicago.
Additionally, Russ has served on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Society for Foodservice Management – serving as SFM President in 2006. He also had the distinct honor of serving as SFM's 2005 Hennessy Traveler where he traveled the world evaluating the United States Air Force's foodservice program. Russ has also earned a Foodservice Management Professional (FMP) certification through the National Restaurant Association's Education Foundation Russ currently serves on the Board of IFMA's Chicago Chapter where he leads the hospitality committee initiatives for the association and has presented at conferences for SFM, MAFSI, and NACUFS.
He has been privileged to be a guest speaker/instructor sharing his expertise of culinary arts and onsite foodservice management at:
• New York University (NYU)
• Johnson & Wales University
• Drexel University
• Widener University
Ed Morano, FCSI, MBA, B.COMM
Senior Advisor
Ed is the Managing Director at KAIZEN food service Planning and Design Inc., and Senior Associate with Innovative Hospitality Solutions. Ed combines his 20 years of food service consulting and operational experience with a Bachelor's degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management and an M.B.A. from York University's Schulich School of Business. He is a Professional Member of the Food Service Consultant Society International (FCSI) and Board Member of the American Association of Healthcare Consultants.Over the past ten years, Ed has concentrated on providing management consulting services, concept development and feasibility analysis of alternative food service and laundry system approaches for healthcare and other institutional sectors.
Healthcare restructuring initiatives have changed the types of food service operations and facilities that are required today and have broadened the diversity of patient, resident and client meal service needs. In response, Ed works with healthcare clients to assess operational and physical implementation of new technologies and procedures, all aimed at improving overall efficiency and quality of health care food service operations.
Key areas of expertise include strategic planning, business planning, operational assessments, financial audits, contract development and facilitation of operator request for proposals.
Karen Malody, MSW, FCSI
Senior Advisor
Prior to beginning her career in the food and beverage industry in 1975, Karen received her Masters degree in Psychiatric Social Work and spent seven years as a teacher and therapist. This foundation created the basis for her philosophy and process as an ideator, business strategist and professional food service coach. Though her particular focus for over thirty years has been concept, product and menu development, the additional skills she injects into all of her professional relationships is diagnostic insight and people-oriented solutions. Though menu or product issues are often the identified point of entry with a client, invariably deeper and more complex issues arise as the diagnostic phase ensues.She formed her own company, Culinary Options, in 1997 in Seattle, Washington, where she resides. Prior to that she owned her own cooking school and catering service, served as Senior Product and Menu Development Director for a group of corporately held restaurants, was Vice-President of Food, Beverage and Product Development for an upscale grocery chain and worked for Starbucks Coffee Company as Director of Food and Beverage and Menu Development.
Culinary Options services include: concept, product and menu evaluation, diagnostics and assessment; concept integration (assuring menu, product, service and decor are in alignment and conveying an integrated message); new product development and product improvement; staffing evaluation, education and training; team-building; leadership coaching.
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