Pam brings more than 15 years' industry experience in training and development, with more than a decade spent leading new restaurant openings, designing training materials, and selecting and developing talented teams to participate in openings in the high-volume environment of The Cheesecake Factory.
Pam describes herself as a “true foodie by nature”. She is in the eternal quest for the best restaurants, recipes, markets, and wines. Her passion for food and cooking led her to the restaurant industry in college. She spent the beginning of her restaurant career operating restaurants all over the Southwest and the California coast. It was then that she dipped her toe in the training and development waters. It was there that she found her true calling.
Pam's passion for people and service has always inspired others. While at The Cheesecake Factory, she taught over 350 managers how to recruit, manage and retain talented staff members. She selected and developed more than 1400 staff to train and coach newly hired staff at over 25 openings.
Pam led a very elite team of managers and staff to train, implement, rollout, and support new point of sale and front desk systems. These systems helped keep The Cheesecake Factory at the top of the industry with regard to technology. She also created an intra-company website for her department. This assisted over 50 regional managers and 100 staff members to stay connected with the latest and greatest in department communications.
Pam understands that human resources is a business partner, and while at The Cheesecake Factory, balanced the needs of people and profit by ensuring training labor and new restaurant costs and efficiencies remained within or under-budget, finding an average of over 10% in cost savings at each opening.
Pam's strengths are her attention to detail, communication and negotiation skills, and her ability to build relationships. She leverages these talents to excel in her role as Director of Recruiting and Talent for VSAG, identifying the talent needed to open and operate businesses successfully.
