Jim is a 40-year restaurant industry veteran, having served in multiple operations leadership roles over the past 4 decades. He is passionate about helping restaurants of all sizes to be successful, and to that end, focuses his energy and expertise in the areas of Off-Premises, Catering, and Operations to create winning growth strategies.

Early on in his career, Jim’s hands-on experiences with Au Bon Pain, Einstein’s, and Metromedia Restaurant Group provided unique insight into the day-to-day challenges of operating multi-unit restaurants in challenging start-up, franchise, and turn-around environments.

His experiences with Panera Bread as a Franchisee and Operating Partner, and later as the VP of Catering for Panera, LLC provided Jim with valuable perspectives on the challenges faced at all levels of organizations, large and small.

Leading the growth of Panera Bread catering over a nine-year period, he was responsible for creating and implementing the strategic and tactical catering initiatives resulting in multiple years of double-digit sales growth and annual catering sales of over $350M.

Building upon his experiences at Panera, Jim went on to lead the Off-Premises Dining efforts at P.F. Chang’s, and later joined ezCater as Catering Practice Leader in January of 2018, responsible for building client relationships, providing insight on products for the ezCater platform, and helping operators better understand how to be successful with their catering efforts.

Jim is an investor in Act III Holdings, LLC and was responsible over the last several years for providing Off-Premises sales leadership and advice for the Act III portfolio brands, including Tatte Bakery and Café, Life Alive Organic Café, CAVA, Level 99, and BJ’s Brewhouse.

He is currently the Principal of CaterStrat, LLC, and recently founded the RandParker Group. Both ventures are focused on providing strategic advice, resources, and partnerships for restaurants looking to create better brand and consumer experiences, with an emphasis on the Off-Premises channels.