NRA announces Kenneth Walters as VP of Sales for Strategic Accounts

Nevin Barich

WASHINGTON , May 16, 2012 (press release) – The National Restaurant Association today announced that Kenneth Walters has been named vice president of sales for strategic accounts. Walters brings more than 25 years of sales and management experience to the Association team, including extensive expertise in food safety to support the organization’s ServSafe Food Safety product portfolio.

“We’re excited to have Ken join our team to focus on building our product and services offerings, including our ServSafe portfolio,” said Paul Hineman, executive director of National Restaurant Association Solutions. “His experience will help drive our product expansion and development to create high quality, innovative products and services for the Association’s 400,000+ members and the foodservice industry at large.”

In his new role, Walters will be responsible for creating the strategic direction and executing a comprehensive sales program for non-traditional channels, including grocery stores, convenience and drug stores, and hotel and lodging. As the Association continues to diversify its ServSafe and partner product revenues, this will be critical to grow accounts and channels.

Previously, Walters was client services manager/food safety with Prometric, where he led the food safety program by developing strategic business relationships and client solutions. In this role, he also assisted in developing and implementing Conference for Food Protection (CFP) standards for accreditation, including all aspects of ANSI surveillance audit compliance. Prior to that, he held key positions at Office Max, Galyans Sports & Outdoors, and Sportmart.

Walters holds a BS from University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business, and lives in Rosemount, Minn. He will report to Hineman.

The National Restaurant Association recently launched ServSafe 6th Edition, which is based on a new job task analysis developed exclusively by restaurant operators across segments, academic bodies and regulatory experts for real-life situations. The new edition focuses more intently on the preventative measures to keep food safe, leading to stronger food safety practices and a better trained workforce. The ServSafe program is certified through the American National Standards Institute-Conference for Food Protection (ANSI-CFP), the leading certifier of food safety training.

The industry leader for nearly 40 years, ServSafe continues to evolve with innovative changes that make food safety easier to learn and retain. Because the ServSafe program is developed by the National Restaurant Association, proceeds go back into the industry to help improve the foodservice industry through research and education. For more information, visit www.servsafe.com.

###
Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises 970,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of nearly 13 million employees. We represent the industry in Washington, D.C., and advocate on its behalf. We operate the industry's largest trade show (NRA Show May 18-21, 2013, in Chicago); leading food safety training and certification program (ServSafe); unique career-building high school program (the NRAEF's ProStart, including the National ProStart Invitational April 19-21, 2013, in Baltimore, Md.); as well as the Kids LiveWell program promoting healthful kids' menu options. For more information, visit www.restaurant.org and find us on Twitter @WeRRestaurants, Facebook and YouTube.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.