Executive Session: DAVID LYNCH

Executive Session: DAVID LYNCH

Regional Vice President of Florida First Watch restaurants

PERSONAL

Age: 46

Family: Wife, Gayle; son, Sam, 10.

Hometown: Duluth, Minn.

Education: Bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Minnesota.

HOW DO YOU ESCAPE: "In my personal time, I do a lot of yoga and hop on my bike and knock out 50 miles."

FAVORITE THING TO EAT ON THE FIRST WATCH MENU: The Killer Cajun Omelet, an omelet with spicy chicken, mushrooms, onions, Monterey Jack cheese and a side of Santa Fe sauce. "I like food a little bit spicy, so it hits me real well."

BOOKS ON YOUR NIGHTSTAND: "In Search of Excellence" by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman; "Good to Great" by Jim Collins; and biographies on Wyatt Earp, George Patton and Sitting Bull. "I love reading stories about great people doing great things."

THREE THINGS IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR: Cottage cheese, orange juice and fresh fruit.

TV SHOW THAT YOU'RE EMBARRASED TO ADMIT YOU WATCH: "My wife and I watch 'The Apprentice' - the one with Donald Trump, not Martha Stewart."

RADIO STATION YOU LISTEN TO: 970 WFLA. "I listen to talk radio a lot."

FAVORTE TALK RADIO PERSONALITY: Rush Limbaugh. "I like Rush not necessarily for the concepts. I enjoy listening to him set up his arguments. I love listening to how he reaches his conclusions. I love listening to how he takes somebody up with an adverse opinion and listens intently, handles the pertinent points and deals with them. He's excellent at communication, and I enjoy listening to him for that."

MUSIC ON YOUR IPOD: Jane's Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins, Bruce Springsteen and U2. And Britney Spears ... just kidding.

PROFESSSIONAL BACKGROUND

Time with company: 11 years.

Positions previously held: "When I was first hired by First Watch, we had only 13 restaurants and I was living in Sarasota. I took the job with First Watch to open up a new market in Columbus, Ohio. So for the past 11 years, I've been up in Columbus, Ohio, then this opportunity came available. Prior to First Watch, I was general manager of Chart House Restaurant for 17 years. Then I was with First Watch, where I was general manager, regional manager, director of operations and now regional vice president. In the 20 years that my wife and I have been married, we probably have lived in 10 different cities."

WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS ABOUT RETURNING TO THE SARASOTA/BRADENTON AREA?: "I'm very excited to be back. It's a beautiful place. Riding a bike in January ... you can't complain about that, can you? I'm very happy wearing a swimming suit and a T-shirt. If could I could live most of my life like that - just throwing on some flip-flops - than I would be a pretty happy cowboy."

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB OUT OF COLLEGE: "I was a manager for Chart House."

HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS: "To put myself through college, I worked in restaurants and did numerous jobs in restaurants, most of the time waiting tables. Then it came time to graduate, and I took a look at my economics degree and took a look what economics people were doing and I just thought, 'That's not what I'm wired to do.' I enjoy this business so much because of the challenges, the electricity and the development of leadership. Developing my ability to develop other people is probably one of the most exciting parts of my job. I tried to actually get out of the restaurant industry for about a year in between Chart House and First Watch Restaurants and dabbled in a couple of things. I came out realizing I just love restaurants. I love everything about it. I am a restaurant guy, and this is where I'll be for the rest of my life."

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE VENTURES THAT YOU "DABBLED" IN?: "I tried to sell mortgages and tried to start a vending-machine business. It was actually a fairly successful vending-machine business, but I just didn't enjoy it."

WHAT MAKES A GOOD RESTAURANT MANAGER: "Tremendous work ethic, a passion for excellence, a love for being of service to people. If you give me those three things, you'll be a great restaurant manager."

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT THE BUSINESS: "Watching people grow; watching the light bulbs go off; watching somebody that six months ago we didn't think was going to make it and all of the sudden, things start to click and they start blowing you away with their instincts, their intuition and their drive; promoting somebody that you didn't think had a chance and all of a sudden, you're promoting them to a general manager or a regional manager; taking an hourly employee and asking them to take the responsibilities of management and watching their eyes just glow because of the opportunities that are presented in front of them."

COMPANY AND THE POSITION:

WHAT ARE YOUR DUTIES AS NEW REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT OF FLORIDA: "I oversee all the First Watch restaurants in Florida: the existing First Watch restaurants and all restaurants we plan to build."

IMMEDIATE CHALLENGES OF NEW POSITION: "I think the biggest challenge that we all face is finding the great, quality individuals to help us continue to grow and to continue to meet the ever-growing demands of our guests. I think it's easy to fill our restaurants up with people that are uncaring, that are not compassionate, that are not compelled toward customer service. The key is to find those people that just genuinely love taking care of people and are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen."

HOW DO YOU BUILD A BUSINESS PLAN AROUND THE CONCEPT THAT THE RESTAURANT IS CLOSED DURING DINNER HOURS, THE PEAK TIME FOR THE INDUSTRY?: "When you take a look at what we're offering to our guests, we're open seven-and-a-half hours a day. We open at 7 a.m., and we shut down at 2:30 p.m. If you are somebody that absolutely loves being a part of the restaurant industry but wants some resemblance of a quality of life, where else are you going to get this opportunity but First Watch? We send our managers home at 4 or 4:30 p.m. every day. Through our business plan, we are set up to bring in tremendous, quality people to help drive our operations and to help increase the value to our customer. What makes us more attractive to those people is the opportunity for them to go home every single night to their families or to go play nine holes of golf after work. If you're going to put a business plan, you certainly have to ask, 'Can you make it on a $7 check average for the guests?' Well, we've proven that you can. Now the key is can you just bring in the quality people. We feel we have something to offer that nobody else can, so it's a very healthy business plan."

IT SEEMS LIKE YOU HAVE A LOT OF STAFF WORKING AT YOUR RESTAURANTS. ARE LABOR COSTS UNUSUALLY HIGH?: "I don't know if there is a restaurant company out where controlling your labor costs is not a significant part of your job. The beautiful thing about what we do is we really have no down period. When a server comes in or a cook comes in, we've got them extremely busy until the time they go home. So we have the opportunity to maximize their effectiveness and maximize their time for their benefit, as well as ours, very easily."

- David Wexler