Stephen Zagor began teaching in The Institute's Culinary Management program in 2001 and was named program director later that year. Growing up in New York City, Zagor was most impressed with the variety and energy of the city's eating places.

After taking a BA in Political Science at Tulane, Zagor attended Cornell's School of Hotel Administration; Master's Degree in hand, he began his career with stints for the Marriott Hotel corporation in DC, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. He used this background to strike out on his own – in Houston, Texas. He credits a booming economy, the right concept and a broad-based business plan with leading to a small empire that included a 300-seat restaurant, retail food market, catering business and cabaret with singing waiters Zagor returned to New York in 1989 to work for Laventhol & Horwath, and later for Coopers & Lybrand, consulting with such diverse groups as top restaurants, corporate dining rooms, amusement parks, and even a zoo. "Being a consultant in this industry is a dream job," says Zagor, "It can be very glamorous... if you can handle the travel."

Zagor was next general manager of the $10.0 million sales Trattoria Dell'Arte in NYC for two years, and in 1995 gave into the ownership bug again, this time opening a combination Italian restaurant/retail market in Greenwich, Connecticut – once more underscoring a popular theme in both his teaching and independent ventures: cross marketing.

In addition to the professional degree program, Zagor also teaches the school's popular two-day "How To Open a Specialty Food Shop"course. He also is in his 17th year as a Clinical Assistant Professor In the School of Food, Nutrition and Public Health at New York University.

As a consultant Steve continues to provide comprehensive support to a wide variety of clients from owners and operators of independent restaurants and food facilities, to investors and landlords with interests in the restaurant industry. His involvement included operational review, litigation support, business evaluations, market analysis, lease evaluations, business structuring, financial investigations and technical systems assistance.

He has been on the Food Channel numerous times is frequently quoted in Crain's New York Business, and has been a featured speaker at the New York Restaurant Show, and the International Hotel and Restaurant Show.

Brian M. Buckley has over twenty years of experience in the hospitality industry. He is the President and Owner of Plan B Consulting, a full service business that specializes in customized staff training, trouble shooting and the implementation of restaurant and retail business systems. He also consults on the development of wine programs, devises and tests menu items and instructs on the establishment and maintenance of proper sanitary procedures.

During his career he has performed most of the jobs that are done in the restaurant environment, including dish washer, short order cook, waiter, baker, bartender, captain, maitre'd, sommelier, brunch chef and general manager. A number of the well known restaurants that have employed Mr. Buckley include Arcadia, Splendido, China Grill, Hell's Kitchen, Il Vagabondo, Wise Maria, Vivande Porta Via and for seven years he was the manager at Hubert's, a trendsetting restaurant that epitomized American cuisine in New York in the 1980's.

Some of Mr. Buckley's recent clients include Best Cellars, S'MAC, Big Apple BBQ, Morrell Café and Wine Bar, Vintage New York, Tracks, Willie's Dawgs, Barbaluc, Lassi, Penn Wine and Spirits, The Caribbean Kitchen, Natsumi, and Net Jets. Brian has also worked for food magazines and book publishers testing and developing recipes for various publications and cook books.

Mr. Buckley has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, W Magazine, Smart Money, and The New York Times. He has tested products for OXO Good Grips and been on panels at the IACP conference, worked at The Food Network and advised on foodservice trends for Faith Popcorn's Brain Reserve. In addition Brian has appeared on network and local news programs over 40 times in the last 3 years speaking on a variety of subjects related to the food and restaurant industries. Brian is also an instructor, as well as a Blue Ribbon graduate of The Institute of Culinary Education, teaching culinary, wine, food safety and management classes.

Neal Bermas brings extensive experience from a global cross section of enterprises and entrepreneurs in both the public and private sectors. Previously, he was the National Director of Planning and Organization Services with Ernst and Young, and more recently a Director with the international consulting and financial services firm, Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Dr. Bermas focuses on innovative concept design, business strategies, executive development, organization analyses, diversification and operational improvements, for an array of hospitality, restaurant, food, entertainment, fashion, and real estate companies.

Representative corporate clients include The Walt Disney Company, Bogner of America, Sheraton Hotels and Le Meridien Hotels. Dr. Bermas is also recognized as an expert in economic development, gaming, hospitality and land use planning for various Native American Indian tribes. Currently he is engaged with a 4 star boutique resort property in Southeast Asia.

In the food service industry he has worked with a variety of renowned restaurant operators in New York City and across the country. He has significant hands-on experience as a developer and owner of the award winning New York City based "NewsBar" coffee cafes. He is also an operating partner in a Colorado resort steakhouse, twice cited in the National Geographic publication, "Fifty Best Little Bars and Restaurants in the US."

Dr. Bermas graduated from the University of Miami and has a Ph.D. from the Heller School for Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Boston. He has lectured at UCLA and the University of Southern California. He is on the faculty at New York University's Food Studies and Food Management Program and The Institute of Culinary Education. He was selected as an advisor to the White House Conference on Productivity.

He has published extensively in professional and lay publications. Recent publications and commentaries in the food service industry include, "Training a Priority," (Nations Restaurant News), "Sympathy for the Devil? Guest Relations Still the Key to Success in the Restaurant Industry," (Modern Food Service), "The Relationship Between Acculturation and Job Satisfaction Among Chinese Immigrants in the Restaurant Business," (The International Migration Review), and "Attitudes of Foodservice Staff Toward Older Workers," (Journal of the American Dietetic Association).

Dr. Bermas is a founding board member of KOTO, USA; a non-profit organization that supports hospitality and culinary training for homeless and disadvantaged young adults in SE Asia. He is on the Board of Overseers for the Heller School at Brandeis University and was a founding board member of the Wellness Community, a cancer health center. He is a member of numerous professional and educations associations.

John Haywood is the restaurant industry expert for CRG Partners, a national restructuring and turnaround firm active in the hospitality industry. In addition, he works with New York City-based restaurant companies and private equity groups. Some of his current projects include development of the Bobby Flay's Burger Palace concept (opening Spring 2008) and new concept development for Todd English Enterprises. He is also a member of the board of directors of Lessing's, one of the oldest hospitality companies in New York.

For over twenty years, Mr. Haywood held senior management positions with multi-unit restaurant companies, including CEO of Don Shula's Steak Houses, Chief Concept Officer for the Carrols Corporation, VP of Food & Beverage for American Restaurant Group, Director of R&D for the Metromedia Restaurant Group, and Project Manager New Concepts and Senior Operations Analyst for the Jerrico Corporation. In these roles, he led multiple new concept, turnaround and acquisition initiatives.

Mr. Haywood is a graduate and former faculty member of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

Vin McCann started teaching in ICE®'s culinary management in spring 2004. He divides his time between teaching, consulting and operating a landmark inn and restaurant, The Wells House, in New York's Adirondack region.

McCann was born and raised in New York City, and graduated from Bucknell University with a degree in English. "I was going to be a novelist, so I always worked in restaurants to support that ambition," he said. "I had more success in restaurants than I had in publishing, so sort of fell into it." His extraordinarily varied experience in the restaurant business has had a clear entrepreneurial focus. He has always worked in small to mid-sized independently owned companies, with volumes ranging from fifth to four hundred million in sales annually.

In the 1980s, he joined the largest multi-concept franchisee in the country, National Restaurant Management (out of New York City), and after 3 years eventually became the company's Chief Operating Officer and during his tenure grew the company to double its size. In 1992, he became executive vice president of Specialty Restaurant Company, a California-based company. McCann handled all restaurants east of the Mississippi, and as such traveled a lot. Then came time to strike out on his own, and he invested in several steakhouses. For the last six years before joining ICE®, he was the Executive Vice-president of the Boulder Creek/Rothman Group, a Sbarro joint venture company. In his six plus years with BCRG, the company grew from seven to seventeen units.

McCann also serves as an adjunct professor at New York University's School of Food, Nutrition and Public Health and has appeared on various panels at MUFSO and the New York Restaurant Show

What Vin enjoys most about teaching is the exchange he has with students. "You trade experience for enthusiasm," he said. "It refreshes my perspective on the industry to work with young people so excited about the business." He brings to his students the years of experience he has acquired in all segments of the industry, from fine dining to quick-serve restaurants, along with catering and hotels. He's also worked every station in the kitchen.

Marc Maynard-Parisi began teaching in ICE®'s the Culinary Management program in spring 2004. His first foray into CMD classes was as a guest speaker—a role for which he more than qualified, as general manager of the acclaimed Blue Smoke, which he launched with Danny Meyer in March 2002. By that time, he had been working at Union Square Café for nine years, initially part time while utilizing his Cornell degree in Landschape architecture also working as a freelance landscape architect. He fell in love with Union Square Hospitality Group and changed his career.

" I got on-the-job training," Maynard-Parisi said. "My mother was a chef so I had spent a lot of time in restaurants." He uses much of this extensive experience to conduct his classes, since he is able to give his students very practical and current examples of the theories he teaches. He defines culinary management as an essential field—and an advantage that ICE® offers over other schools—as it "breaks down the law between front of the house and back of the house." He likes when students are "skeptical," as it makes them ask better questions.

Working for a large company like Danny Meyer's has advantages, Maynard-Parisi said, because the systems in place make the employees' lives easier and provide them with a great support network. As a result, he has no desire to own his own restaurant. "If you're satisfied and challenged there's no need to move," he added. Teaching offers him new challenges, well complemented by constantly working to improve Blue Smoke and its bar, Jazz Standard, where musicians perform nightly. "I love teaching about company culture, hiring and training," he said. "I always wanted to teach." Mark was recently promoted to Managing Partner at Blue Smoke, but still plans to continue at ICE®.