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Joseph Amiel, President
Amiel Capital Group Inc.
Mr. Amiel brings to Global Menu Guide a wealth of experience in restaurant development, operations and marketing. He is president of Amiel Capital Group, Inc. a private investment company that provides strategic market planning, investment and executive management for regional and national restaurant chains. AMG researches local venues and designs and develops comprehensive financial and marketing strategies that leverage their strengths and accelerates their growth. Joe’s background in the restaurant industry is extensive and spans over 38 years that includes owning and operating 11 restaurant venues which were not only successful but also won numerous awards for creative marketing, advertising and community service. This includes The Old Mill Inn, Spring Lake Heights, N.J., a well known 450 seat fine dining and banquet facility; Evelyn’s seafood restaurant, Belmar N.J.; Symphony Café, a popular upscale restaurant and bar in New York City, Restaurant Associates and Rainbow Room, director Charlie brown's in the Pan Am Building and associate director Rainbow Room. He worked in family operations, which included Leo’s restaurants, New York City, The Washington Square Inn, New York and others. Mr. Amiel’s family was the original creator and owner of the world famous Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant in Times Square. Mr. Amiel was a pioneer using the internet for restaurant marketing and the 1990 developed programs that resulted in tens of thousands of monthly visitors to his restaurant web site.
Bill Boggs, President
Bill Boggs Productions www.billboggs.com
Bill Boggs is a noted food, lifestyle and travel authority, having interviewed and worked with many of the world's top restaurateurs and chefs. He has appeared in a dozen dramatic movie and TV show roles and is a four-time EMMY Award winning television talk show host, a popular after-dinner speaker and master of ceremonies, an accomplished stage performer, a noted TV show producer and a frequently published journalist. His wide-ranging and diverse career has included hosting the seminal New York talk show, "MIDDAY LIVE WITH BILL BOGGS," for Metromedia and FOX, creating, and hosting "BILL BOGGS CORNER TABLE" on Food Network since the network's debut in the mid-1990s, Boggs also pioneered by hosting Food Network's "TV Diners," the first TV program in history of television to deal with the reviews of restaurants on a national scale. "Bill Boggs Talk Show Confidential," www.talkshowconfidential.com (developed at the fabled John Houseman Theater in the spring of 2003) a humorous and enlightening one-man show featuring stories, rare videos and songs about the world of television that Boggs inhabited for the past thirty years. Boggs also won acclaim on stage for his singing and story telling in the Off Broadway hit, "Our Sinatra," and he created and starred in "A Fine Romance," at New York's four-star "Restaurant Daniel.” He holds both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Boggs is in his second year as the host of the national culinary tour, SIMON SUPER CHEFS LIVE, and will be seen in his TV new series, HOME COOKED CLASSICS, on PBS by early 2006
Roger J. Grabowski
Managing Director
Standard & Poor’s
Corporate Value Consulting.
Mr. Grabowski is formerly a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and one of its predecessor firms, Price Waterhouse (where he founded its U.S. Valuation Services practice and managed the real estate appraisal practice). He has directed valuations of businesses, interests in businesses, intellectual property, intangible assets, real property and machinery and equipment. Roger has testified in court as an expert witness on the value of closely held businesses and business interests, matters of solvency, valuation and amortization of intangible assets and other valuation issues. His testimony in U.S. District Court was quoted in the U.S. Supreme Court opinion decided in his client’s favor in the landmark Newark Morning Ledger case. Roger co-authors the annual S&P Corporate Value Consulting Risk Premium Report, published at www.ibbotson.com. He publishes regularly and co-authored three chapters in the recently released The Handbook of Business Valuation and Intellectual Property Analysis (McGraw-Hill, 2004). Roger teaches courses for the American Society of Appraisers including Cost of Capital part of the curriculum of the Center for Advanced Valuation Studies, a course he co-developed.
Jack Maraffi
President, Travelsavers International
Jack@GlobalMenuGuide.com
Currently, Mr. Maraffi is President, Travelsavers International, Global Affiliates an $18 Billion travel marketing company with offices in 10 countries; he is also Editor-in-Chief of the Company publication, The Affluent Traveler, a magazine that is a guide to the good life. Jack currently Serves as consultant to The Waldorf Astoria and serves on their food & beverage committee. He is also a free-lance wine writer and has served on the Advisory Board of Starwoods Hotels. Jack’s His previous company Kaufman & Maraffi Advertising was Billing 38 million dollars when it was sold to another major ad agency. Inc. Magazine characterized the agency as one of the top 50 fastest growing companies in America; clients included Sheraton hotels, The Sands Hotel and the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City, Greek National Tourist Office, American Express, The Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Hilton Hotels, The Delegate and The Rainbow Room. Jack was also VP at Cunard Ships & Hotels. His responsibilities included marketing the Company’s properties in the Caribbean (La Toc and Paradise Beach) as well as The Ritz Hotel in London. And as Vice President for Diners Club supervised marketing Activities for the Company in 153 countries. Prior tenure at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising as Account Supervisor on such accounts as Tide, Ivory Liquid and Duncan Hines Brownies, and Iberia Airlines. Education: Fordham College, BS; Sorbonne MBA. Boards: Starwood Hotels, St. John the Divine, the Sweet Spot Group, LLC, Travelsavers and Romar Corp.
Rick Newman
Executive Director
US Comedy Club Guide
Rick Newman created `Catch A Rising Star', the forum that launched the careers of some of America's most popular comedians and television and film stars including Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Andy Kaufman, Richard Belzer, Ray Romano, Bill Maher, Rosie O'Donnell, Janeane Garafolo, and Chris Rock. In addition to creating `Catch', he has executive produced/produced numerous productions for HBO, CBS, Comedy Central and Cinemax. Including the 1996 CBS special, ‘Catch A Rising Star's 50th Anniversary - Give Or Take 26 Years'. Hosted by Rosie O'Donnell starring Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Richard Belzer, Bill Maher, Janeanne Garofalo, Jon Lovitz, Ray Romano, Chris Rock, Drew Carey, and many others and for HBO he co-produced '30 Seconds Over Washington’ (1997). Mr. Newman has managed the careers of Richard Belzer, Pat Benatar, Rodney Crowell, Steve Forbett, Allan Havey and Susie Essman. In 1989 he co-wrote ‘How to be a Stand-Up Comic' for Random House. with Richard Belzer. Mr. Newman has been a guest on many TV shows including Live with Regis & Kathie Lee, The CBS Morning Show, David Letterman, The John Maclaughlin Show. Mr. Newman has had major articles and interviews in People Magazine, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Daily News, The New York Post and Time Out New York. Rick was featured on VH1’s “When Stand-Up Ruled The World” as well appearing as himself on the popular hit HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. He currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Friars Club, and is Co-Chairman of the Entertainment committee for the Friars Club.
Ron S. Posner
Chairman, PS Capital
Ronald M. Whitehill
Mr. Whitehill recently retired as president, ALLIANCE CASH MANAGEMENT SERVICES in the Alliance Capital Group. As president of this Alliance Capital Management division, Mr. Whitehill increased its money market assets from $7.3 billion to over $45 billion within eight years. Applying advanced and innovative strategies, products and technologies to a wide variety of financial services products, Mr. Whitehill and his team achieved this success in difficult and competitive markets becoming the leader in its market. In prior experience as Senior Vice President of The Reserve Fund, Mr. Whitehill increased the roster of client brokerage firms from 97 to over 400 and established interfaces with all back office service bureaus greatly improving the ability to market funds. Other tenure with Automatic Data Processing (ADP), increased sales from $90 million to $160 million, increased profit margins and launched several new product launches. Mr. Whitehill attended Cornell University School of Law, and has a BA cum laude from Brown University.