Dave Kuelpman has no family connections to the equipment and supply (E&S) segment, but instead got started just a few years out of college as a salesman for a major refrigeration manufacturer. He thrived in this post, and over the next eight years Kuelpman rose to become the company’s western regional sales manager.
Click for a list of past winners in the following categories: Dealer, Consultant, Service Agent, Manufacturers' Rep and Operator.
All of our 2017 Top Achievers possess exemplary leadership qualities: a rock-solid moral compass, steadfast determination, and an attitude that inspires. Their influence reaches all corners of the foodservice industry.
Entrepreneurialism runs in David Ellingson's veins. At age 37, he now leads the company founded in 1960 by his grandfather Byron Ellingson and Howard Bargreen. Representing the third Ellingson generation to manage Bargreen Ellingson, based in Tacoma, Wash., (the Bargreens were bought out in the late 1990s), David joined the family firm in 2006. He was named president in January 2012, transitioning leadership from his father, Paul, and uncle, Rick, who grew the company into a premier regional E&S dealership.
The term design consultant doesn't begin to describe the value that Beth Kuczera provides to her clients. What she accomplishes as the president of Chicago-based Equipment Dynamics Inc. is more like making dreams come true. She describes it as being a good translator, converting the physical realities of a foodservice concept into a plan for architecture, interior design and engineering development. She aims for productivity and visual effect. The end result takes the form of a restaurant that not only has efficient, functional workflow but also gives diners that wow factor.
Most people would be burned out from their job after working 42 years for the same company, but not Paul Toukatly. The service manager and co-owner of upstate New York's Duffy's Equipment Service remains passionate about his work and the service sector as a whole, decades later. The energy in his voice when he talks about the sector makes that clear.
2017 Top Achiever — Manufacturers’ Representative: Stacey Stahl Co-president, Ritten Associates Inc.
Stacey Stahl, co-president of Ritten Associates Inc., based in Edina, Minn., is not one for self-promotion. In fact, when she learned about FE&S recognizing her as at Top Achiever, her first reaction was to turn it down.
Thoughtful, hard working, dedicated.
Success in business doesn't require some grand plan. Treating the customer right, using good common sense and making the most of the opportunities that come your way can lead to great things.
A landscape architect by training, Todd Guyette, principal and owner of Colburn & Guyette, brings a unique skill set to his veteran role as a foodservice designer.
It will mark 21 years next month (May) that third-generation manufacturer's rep Chris Jeens has dominated the Canadian marketplace since taking over W.D. Colledge Co. Ltd. The company was founded in 1953 by his maternal grandfather William Colledge and succeeded by his father Neville Jeens in 1976. Jeens would never use the word "dominated," however; the soft-spoken and humble industry vet remains just as close with his competitors as he does with his colleagues, first through the Canadian chapter for the Manufacturers' Agents Association for the Foodservice Industry (MAFSI) and now as vice president of MAFSI.
