Rob Finley began his foodservice career shortly after graduating from Ohio University in 1991. He joined Wasserstrom, developing regional and national accounts where he effectively managed healthcare, Supermarket, Chain Restaurant (QSR to fine dining), along with Hotel and Gaming business sectors.\Having spent 15 years in senior distribution roles, he embarked internationally with tableware manufacturer, Fortessa, as VP of International Sales from 2008-2012. His primary responsibility was building international sales channels outside of the US market with heavy responsibility for hotel and gaming business in Canadian, Mexican, Latin American, European, Middle Eastern, and Asian markets.Rob chose to migrate back to the US market with Senior management positions at Oneida and Anchor Hocking, focusing on National Accounts and ultimately leading commercial foodservice for the combined entity from 2012-2016. Rob joined Steelite International America in 2017 with primary focus on national accounts and in 2019 entered a hybrid role managing select national accounts for Steelite while managing a broad spectrum of E and S vendors within that channel, through his partnership with the Gabriel Group. It was an important milestone in understanding the power, efficiency and indeed desire by Multi-Unit Restaurant, Lodging customers for a single engagement. National account penetration through a single Advisory or rep firm has not existed on a national basis, UNTIL a new path was created. Rob launched The Hospitality Advisory January 3rd, 2023 with formal announcement and engagement scheduled at NAFEM, 1-3 November, 2023His over 30 years of experience in foodservice across broad channels at the distributer, manufacturer, and agency roles, makes his expertise in this “pleasantly disruptive model” ideal to make an industry advance.
