Allen Z. Reich

Allen has worked and taught in the hospitality industry since he was a teenager (1965)— mostly in the restaurant industry, but also in food & beverage in resorts and hotels. In the industry he progressed from cook to corporate VP of operations with positions such as sous chef at Green Pastures, a restaurant on James Beard’s list of top 100 restaurant in the world, where he often cooked for Lady Bird Johnson for various functions at the LBJ Presidential Library, the Texas Governor and Lt. Governor, Actors—Helen Hayes, Kirk Douglas and others, members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the U.S. President’s Cabinet, Astronauts including Alan Shepard—the first U.S. person in space and walked on the moon, and others. While at Schlotzsky’s Corporate Headquarters, Allen was promoted to General Manager of Corporate-Owned Restaurants where he increased bottom line profit by 8% of sales. He was Vice-President of Operations for Purdy’s Hamburger Market & Bakery. Allen also works as an expert witness for lawsuits involving restaurants and food & beverage facilities, having served as the lead witness on multi- million and billion-dollar lawsuits. In education, he received his Masters degree at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant and Management and doctorate at Virginia Tech. He taught for five years at the Hilton College. Since 1998 he has taught at Northern Arizona University’s School of Hotel & Restaurant Management, in the W. A. Franke College of Business where he is the Isbell Ethics Professor, President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow (university teacher-of-the-year), and recipient of the NAU President’s Award (university faculty-of-the-year).