Richard Levy 
Richard
Levy is the founding President and Chief Executive officer of Salad Spinners
Corp. Richard is a 31-year-old graduate of Indiana University School of Business
with a concentration in entrepreneurship. A seven year veteran of the food-service
industry, he has worked in South Africa as an analyst for First South Africa
Corp., now Silver Star Holdings (NASDAQ – SSTR).
There he oversaw various aspects of the food service manufacturing industry
- more specifically, the meat processing and baked goods manufacturing
industry.
In 1999, Rich Levy was 23, had lost half a million dollars of investors money and was closing the doors to Piez, a single store that sold meat pie lunches at the Thompson Center food court. He had thought that a mound of cash and a good idea would lead to a successful food chain but after one year and being 50 percent off his sales targets, he realized it was time to throw in the towel and regroup. After some soul searching, Levy accepted that he lacked a couple of key skills necessary to build a successful restaurant business – humility and knowledge. His next steps “suck it up and get his hands dirty.”
Levy immersed himself in the restaurant business learning the inner-workings from the food prep line all the way up to the board room. He secured a $9/hour job making sandwiches at Mrs. Levy’s Delicatessen (no relation), found himself a mentor and began networking at industry events attended by the nation's most successful food entrepreneurs. After nine months, it dawned on Levy what he lacked during his first go-round -- a commitment to the fundamentals. He had failed to watch costs and spent foolishly and neglected to hire experienced employees. With his newly-found wisdom and fundamental approach, he launched a new restaurant concept that addressed arguably the single most daunting challenge keeping today's restaurant industry guru’s heads spinning how to serve quick, tasty food that answers consumer's growing concern about nutrition. His restaurant is called Salad Spinners and in five years it has grown to four, downtown Chicago stores and a catering business that generates $2 million a year...and it's just the beginning.
Salad Spinners is privately funded by both Mr. Levy and his family.
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