Strong Leadership Experienced in Business and Academics

George Rice was educated at Boston University’s College of Business Administration where he received his degree in Business Management, and is a 1968 PMD graduate of the Harvard Business School. Throughout his extensive hospitality career, George held executive positions as Regional Vice President of Dunkin’ Donuts, Executive Vice President and COO of Chicken Unlimited Enterprises, Senior Vice President of NPD Research and President and CEO of GDR / CREST Enterprises. GDR / CREST Enterprises developed and managed some of today’s best-known food service industry databases for tracking consumer and chain restaurant sales and traffic. These included The CREST Report, IFMATRAC and GDR SalesTrac.

George authored the Industry of Choice Report Parts I and II, sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company, which provide a comprehensive analysis of the food service employee work place, detailing employee needs, attitudes and behaviors. He is a two-term past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation and has served on the faculty of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration teaching Food and Beverage Strategic Marketing. As one of the food service research industry’s most respected and quoted authorities and ardent supporters, George has addressed a wide variety of domestic and international audiences as a featured speaker for virtually every major industry meeting.

After eight years of work in various operational positions in the hotel and restaurant industry, including owner/general manager of his own restaurant, he pursued a career in hospitality education. He spent more than 30 years teaching hospitality management, primarily as an Associate Professor at Cornell University. He also served as the Director of Hospitality Management at the University of Minnesota-Crookston and taught at the University level in France, Brazil and Singapore. Tom has received many awards and is a past National Chair of the American Institute of Wine and Food.

In 1982, Tom became actively engaged in consulting work. This activity focused primarily on the hospitality industry and addressed areas ranging from operations, revenue management, marketing, quality assurance rating and development. During this time, Tom worked on hundreds of projects, some of the more noteworthy include: advising the Port Authority of New York on leasing Windows on the World, relocating the restaurant Le Cirque to the Palace Hotel for the royal family of Brunei, developing hotel properties in Florida, assisting the Irish Tourism Commission, formulating a revenue management plan for the Japan Food Service Association, writing the restaurant rating criteria and training the inspectors for the American Automobile Association (AAA), administrating the Distinguished Restaurants of North America Award inspection program and the Mobil Guide inspection program from 1998 through 2001.

Tom was a founding partner of RMS in 1994, and is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on menu pricing.

Ken has been a member of the Department of Economics for the University of Pennsylvania for the last 10 years. He is currently a James Joo-Jin Professor of Economics at the University. Ken is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists. His academic credentials include a BA, CNAA from London, England, a MSc. from London University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Ken is a world-renowned economist, with over 50 articles on economics and related subjects. Ken provides RMS with a rigorous background in analysis and an expertise in theoretical approaches to understanding complex data relationships.

Olivier’s career in the hospitality industry started in 1992, after obtaining a French Baccalaureate in mathematics and biology. In 1996, he obtained his Bachelor of Science from Switzerland’s Lausanne Hotel School (EHL). The unique internship system at EHL allowed him to gain hands on experience in food and beverage operations for several prestigious hotels and restaurants throughout Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Olivier completed his French National Service in Singapore working for a French food and wine supplier as a Senior Sales Executive. After nearly two years in Asia, he returned to Europe and worked for a newly opened hotel and spa in the Catalan region of Spain focusing on the development of the hotel’s food and beverage offering. In 2000, Olivier completed his Masters of Management in Hospitality at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration focusing his studies on finance, accounting and revenue management.

Alex is responsible for leading the consulting teams and providing strategic oversight for all US and Canadian clients.

Alex is originally from upstate New York where he also attended Cornell University and studied in the fields of Civil Engineering and Hotel Restaurant Management. With significant years of combined technical and industry experience, Alex is able to apply a high level of statistical analysis and hospitality-related expertise to the work at RMS.

Alex plays an integral part in the day-to-day management of the firm. Since he joined the RMS team in 1998, Alex has continued to play a critical role in streamlining RMS’s services and advancing the company’s systems and business applications. Today, he is a listed author on several RMS US patents.

Originally from Mountain View, California, John’s interest in technology was fueled by the rapidly changing Silicon Valley. While receiving his bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of Tampa, he found a wholehearted interest in software development and system design.

Before joining RMS, John worked with several major technology companies where he contributed to numerous successful software projects. With years of experience in software development and IT infrastructure, specializing in system architecture, database design, and web application development, he adds a broad range of technical knowledge to RMS’ distinctive information technology capabilities.

Before moving to the United States, Sebastián taught statistics and econometrics at the University of Economic Sciences in Montevideo, Uruguay. He created a model for the Demand for Money in Uruguay for his thesis and obtained his Bachelor of Economics, graduating in the top 5% of his class.

Sebastián obtained his Masters of Business Administration at the University of Miami’s School of Business and while there, worked as a graduate assistant in the Marketing Department. While completing his Masters, he strengthened his statistical knowledge by pursuing a specialization in Management Applied Sciences.

Suzanne Rannie is a graduate of the Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration where she completed the course work for her master’s degree. She started her career in culinary arts and has spent over thirty-three years in the hospitality industry. She has held both operations and consulting positions with organizations throughout Canada, the United States, the Bahamas, Europe, Brunei and other parts of Asia.

Various positions she has held include Corporate Training Director for Resorts International in the Bahamas, Vice President of Quality Management and Operations for two different casino companies, Vice President of Hotel Operations, and Vice President of Casino Services. In the educational field, Suzanne has also worked as a lecturer at Cornell University in New York, a lecturer for Cornell University at the Hospitality University in the Bahamas, an associate professor at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, Canada, and culinary teacher at George Brown College in Toronto. Suzanne’s consulting experience includes work with Tom Kelly on the Distinguished Restaurants of North America program and management of the Exxon Mobil Travel guide inspection process.

Alfonso started his career in the world of hospitality in the mid-90s. After obtaining his degree in Economics he decided to focus his career on tourism and hospitality, the main industries in his home country of Spain. A post-graduate degree in Food & Beverage Strategic Management led him to a management trainee position in a resort property in southern Spain followed by a Resident Manager post at a luxury resort in the Italian Alps.

In 1998, Alfonso began his graduate studies at Cornell University, focusing his courses and research in the field of Revenue Management and Service Operations, obtaining his Masters degree in 2000. For the next 5 years, Alfonso worked for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. He first managed the development team in their industry-leading Revenue Management practice and went on to head the quality control department for the company’s luxury brand Celebrity Cruises as the Director of Brand Quality & Standards. Prior to joining RMS, Alfonso spent half of a year as General Manager onboard a luxury cruise ship sailing in the Galapagos Islands.

George brings senior level franchise management experience in the areas of Operations, Marketing, Franchise Development, Revenue Management, Menu Management, Financial Management and Franchisee Relations to RMS with over 35 years in the franchising business. His 28 years of experience as a corporate executive with International Dairy Queen and six more as a Master Franchisee, brings special insight in developing unique and positive win/win situations for our clients.

He has worked and lived in both the United States and Canada adding an understanding of cross border differences and similarities which can be used to the benefit of those dealing in both countries.

George has a BA in Economics from the University of Minnesota, Morris.