For over 15 years A'LaCarte Foodservice Consulting Group (A'LaCarte) has been providing operations and growth related consulting to Restaurants, Hotels, Convention Centers, Casinos, Country Clubs, Stadiums and Airports. A'LaCarte has successfully completed projects for start-ups, independent restaurant companies and large multi-unit chains. They have consulted on concept development operations, and growth related matters with a variety of chains (franchisors and franchisees) and independent operators.

Chris Tripoli has over 35 years experience in the Hospitality industry as a Designer, Developer, Owner and Operator. He has provided research and opinions on a variety of legal issues facing the hospitality industry. Mr. Tripoli has written for Food Service News, My Table Magazine, Restaurant Start-up and Growth and has been featured in various other trade publications. He lectures at the Art Institute and teaches courses in opening restaurants and proper growth strategies at the Small Business Development Center of the University of Houston.

Services Include:

Concept Development

Finance Planning (Mergers & Acquisitions)

Business Valuations

Operations (Policies and Procedures)

Management and Staff Handling (Labor Related)

Safety, Sanitation and Food Handling

Franchise Development and Field Services

OUR MISSION: To assist our clients SETTLE their Industrial Cases OUT OF COURT, which significantly reduces the time and cost of extensive litigation.

To provide compelling COURT TESTIMONY, documents and exhibits for the cases that eventually do go to Trial.

Since 1983, 94% of our 565 Industrial Cases have settled OUT OF COURT – as representatives for Insurers, Defense and Plaintiff Attorneys. Our group of Associates has in depth expertise in a broad spectrum of Industries – specializing in Industrial and Construction Safety, and Accident Reconstruction. Available worldwide for plaintiff and defense cases.

COMPANY PROFILE: Causey Engineering has been providing Expert Witness, Forensic Engineering, Investigation, and Litigation Support services NATIONWIDE since 1983. Our experts have hands-on industrial and construction, field and office experience.

Areas of Expertise:

Central Power Plants Chemical plants Drilling Engineering & Design Equipment & Machinery Food Manufacturing Forestry Industrial Construction Intellectual Property Ladders & Scaffolds Logging Lumber and Wood Products Oil & Gas Production

Materials Handling Natural Gas Packaging Paper Products Patents Petrochemical Power Stations Pulp & Paper Refineries Saw Mills Transportation Utilities Warehousing

Expert Witness Services:

Accident Investigation & Reconstruction

Claims Analysis

Codes & Regulations

Forensic Analysis

Expert Testimony

Litigation Support

Models & Prototypes

Project Management

OSHA / Safety

Strategic Planning

Expert Profile: GERALD J. HIETPAS, P.E.

Mr. Hietpas is President of Causey Engineering LLC. Mr. Hietpas has particular experience in pulp, paper, lumber and food manufacturing, industrial construction, intellectual property and patent infringement. (See our website for more details)

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Frank Dell has over 25 years consulting experience to the Food & Consumer Products Industries (food & non-food retailers, wholesalers, foodservice and manufacturers). Mr. Dell's experience includes supply chain (distribution, logistics, procurement, inventory & transportation), operations improvement (store & warehouse) and costing and strategy.

Jeff Nelken is a Food Safety expert with 35 years experience in the hospitality industry. He specializes in Food Safety, Accident Prevention and Training in restaurants, casinos, manufacturing plants, and health care facilities. Mr. Nelken consults for attorneys that need expert opinions on topics, such as food-borne illness complaints, food allergies, accidents, foreign objects, burns and standards of performance and care.

He coaches personnel to improve food safety awareness, through inspection and customized quality HACCP training programs. He is a certified trainer and provider with the Los Angeles Health Department. In addition, Mr. Nelken has worked with CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, INSIDE EDITION, and Dateline MSNBC’s investigation team, as well as Restaurants, Casinos, Schools, Supermarkets and Food Manufacturers to provide food safety.

Services Offered:

Litigation Support

Food Safety Training

Accident / Safety Training

AIB Audit Preparation

Vulnerability Inspections

Food Safety Speaker

Health Dept. Issues

Gary E. Kilpatrick and Associates, PA is a Forensics Engineering Firm dedicated to the application of the art, science and methodology of engineering and the scientific method to answer questions of fact in the jurisprudence system pertaining to personal injury and wrongful death. We provide technical competency, forensic evidence collection from the field and from documents, oral and written communications, objective, ethical and professional responsibility.

We are familiar with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence and Daubert and have given sworn expert testimony under oath during judicial proceedings. We are retained by law firms, public defenders and insurance companies on plaintiff, defense, criminal and claimant cases and work nation wide.

Areas of Expertise:

• Traffic Accident Reconstruction
• Vehicle Crash Data Report Retrieval and Interpretation
• Off-Road ATV Accident Reconstruction
• Motorcycle Accident Reconstruction
• Vehicle Inspections
• Industrial Accident Reconstruction
• OSHA Safety 29CFR1910
• OSHA 29CFR1926
• OSHA 29CFR1928
• Product Liability Investigations

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Dr. Gary K. Vallen is an expert in Hospitality Management, Lodging Operations & Casino Gaming; including Hotels, Casino Management, Bed and Breakfasts, Dude Ranches, Resorts, Restaurants, etc. He has numerous years of Hospitality Management Industry Experience, including senior management positions.

Dr. Vallen has been a Professor at Northern Arizona University, School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, since its inception in 1988. He is author of a best-selling text book on hotel operations; Check-In Check-Out, and other articles and publications.

Download Dr. Vallen's Curriculum Vitae

Kathy Bechtel is the Owner and Culinary Director of Italiaoutdoors, a small Travel and Recreation company. After a career as a telecommunications engineer, at Bell Labs and in the semiconductor industry, Ms. Bechtel retired and enrolled in culinary school, graduating at the top of her class in 2004. She is a PSIA certified ski instructor who works full time at Sugarloaf, ME during the winter. In addition, Ms. Bechtel teaches cooking classes in Italian cuisine, hosts a cooking show on WSKI-TV, and is the author of a food and wine blog at www.chefbikeski.com.

Italiaoutdoors was established in early 2010 to offer unique hiking, biking, skiing, and culinary tours in Northeastern Italy. They offer small, personally designed recreational programs, individually adapted to their guests’ fitness levels and interests. For more information about tours and tastings visit www.italiaoutdoorsfoodandwine.com.

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Food Service & Restaurant Design Consultant. I have been involved in the design of restaurants and commercial kitchens for over 10 years. I have personally designed over 125 restaurants including front of house and back kitchen design, including project management. I have a B.A. in interior design. I have worked on projects throughout the United States and Phillipines, and Honduras.

Over the last 2 years I have owned my own company which has provided complete construction drawings for over 30 restaurants ranging from 1,500 sq. ft. to over 3,000 sq. ft. I have also been retained by architects and business owners to provide coordination drawings for commercial kitchen design for over 35 projects ranging in size from 1,000 sq. ft to 5,000 sq. ft. I have also worked on franchise restaurant projects for McDonalds, Chevy's Mexican Restaurant, Jamba Juice, Tahoe Joe's, Taxi's Hamburgers.

mdi Consultants, Inc - Experts in FDA regulatory affairs, quality assurance and ISO 9000 certification. With 6 years in the FDA and 26 years consulting to the industry, mdi Consultants, Inc. has been an invited Speaker worldwide on FDA regulations and policies and has obtained FDA expert status as third party auditors.

OUR APPROACH

We utilize the following three part approach to providing high quality services to our clients:

Unsurpassed consultant experience – we identify and recruit only top quality consultants with deep industry knowledge to provide the most complete and insightful advice to our clients

Up-to-date systems and processes – we have highly defined systems (e.g. manuals, training programs, technical files) and processes (e.g. audit methodologies, 510(k) submission, validations) that are constantly refined and kept current across the ever changing regulatory environment

Involvement in regulation development – we stay ahead of policies by participating in the development of regulation (e.g. HACCP, Scientific Advisor to U.S. Congressmen)

Glen Balzer is a Management and Forensic Consultant involved with Domestic and International Marketing and Sales. He advises parties involved with contracts between manufacturers' representatives, suppliers, global customers and industrial distributors. He promotes conflict resolution between parties involved in representative agreements and distribution agreements. During the past 30 years, he has been involved in establishing and managing marketing and sales organizations throughout America, Europe and Asia.

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