From an entry-level Hostess to Operations Manager, HR Director, Public Relations Strategist, and Chief of Staff, my career has run the life of Frontera Grill-starting in an unknown neighborhood in Chicago to being ranked the world's third-best casual dining restaurant and winning the James Beard Award with a designation as the best restaurant in the U.S. 2007As a Chief of Staff and Director of Operations, I have a knack for leading teams to achieve excellence:📌 Operations Leader — Enabled business to earn James Beard Awards (7) and Michelin Stars (2)📌 Press Agent — Fueled Rick Bayless to become a world-renowned chef and author.📌 Event Manager — Sold millions in revenue, accelerating growth from 1 to 6 award-winning restaurants over two decades.📌 HR Director — Transformed restaurant industry standards for employee benefits.► STRATEGIC OPERATIONS MANAGERDirecting operations is what I do best, starting with leading annual visioning meetings focusing on service excellence and questioning everything: Who are we? What are we reinventing? How can we improve our appearance? Do we have the right staff? How do we reinvent ourselves to achieve continued success?I take ownership of strategic initiatives, using big-picture thinking to visualize the end state and create a detailed project plan. When opening new restaurants, I was accountable for every project detail, from managing construction to sourcing and onboarding new staff.To support a local produce farming initiative, I led a fundraising campaign earning $1.3M for farming capital improvements.► COMPASSIONATE HUMAN RESOURCE CHAMPIONI'm known to be a one-of-a-kind employee advocate. My passion is ensuring people have a real jobs to send their kids to college. My career-defining achievement is continuously striving to revolutionize the restaurant industry standards for employee benefits:* Influenced owners to give 20% increases over minimum by using a 20% service fee.* Increased quality of health insurance.During the pandemic, I ensured staff had access to food and could survive. I contacted philanthropic clients for money, resulting in 3,000 grocery deliveries and countless donations to pay employee rent or keep the heat on.► RESILIENT LEADER All the roles I’ve held in the past 20 years tap into my core strengths:📌 Passion for learning, coaching, and mentoring📌 Visioning and breakthrough thinking📌 Looking at problems from a big-picture lens📌 Adapting to change rapidlyWant to talk about operational and service excellence? Let’s connect. Jen Fitejenfite@icloud.com