BIO

I come from a family business where this industry has been part of my life since birth. Dinner conversations growing up revolved around kitchens, customers, and equipment. Two days after my 16th birthday, I took my first job at Portillo's, where I experienced the restaurant industry from the front lines. Starting as a cashier and later working the expo line and kitchen, I gained firsthand appreciation for the pressure restaurant teams face every day. That experience taught me the importance of urgency, communication, and keeping equipment running—lessons that continue to shape my approach to customer service and leadership.

After high school, I enrolled in community college with plans to become a police officer, but I joined the family business to help pay for school and quickly discovered my passion for the commercial foodservice industry.

I began at CSI installing equipment, cleaning and refurbishing equipment in our warehouse and customer locations, and repairing equipment on the bench. A few years later I transitioned into the office, where I took over warranty administration. There I learned the importance of accurate documentation, OEM expectations, and the financial realities of service organizations.

At the same time, I helped modernize our company's technology infrastructure, giving me a unique perspective on how operational processes and technology work together to improve customer service.

For the past 10 years, I have served as Director of Operations. In that role I oversee the systems, processes, and technology that support the level of service our customers expect. I've led initiatives that enabled us to successfully support branch operations more than 1,000 miles from our corporate office while achieving consistent double-digit growth, maintaining strong cash flow, and ensuring profitable operations.

My first exposure to CFESA started at a Regional Meeting, my uncle Mike Coker brought me with and said, just listen to what these guys have to say. The who’s who of the Midwest got in a room and discussed their business like they were sitting in their own board rooms. Freely sharing best practice and trends they are seeing without a care in the world that the room was filled with their competition. This is when I knew this industry is where I wanted to be. At my first conference, there was a tiny burly man named Tony Rapanotti, who introduced me to an amazing group of people. He took me under his wing, invited me to dinners and put me in positions to meet and be seen by our industries top players. Since then, I have remained actively involved in CFESA, attending every annual conference and business meeting while serving in leadership roles across Marketing, Education, Business Technology, and as Chair of the Industry Trends Committee. I have served as Region 2 Leader, organized regional meetings, and spent the past eight years on the Board of Directors, including four years as Vice President.

Throughout that time, I've focused on initiatives that strengthen our association for the long term. I helped develop CFESA's Learning Management System and the Electric, Gas, Steam, and Refrigeration training programs that support technician development across our industry. As Chair of the Bylaws Committee, I led a comprehensive modernization of our governing documents to ensure they remain clear, current, and positioned for the future.

Those experiences have reinforced a philosophy I believe is essential to effective leadership: respect the foundation built by those who came before us while embracing new ideas that move our association forward. As President, my commitment is to lead with transparency, communicate openly with our members, expand the training resources that make CFESA the undisputed standard for service excellence, and encourage thoughtful discussion that turns the best ideas from our membership into meaningful action.