Our CORE
The people behind the program.
100+ years of combined industry knowledge — built across multi-unit restaurant operations, hotels, vacation ownership, recreation, and distribution.
Leadership
Partners who have lived this business.
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Ross A. Kellman
Managing Partner & Co-Founder
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25 years of direct industry experience. Spent 11+ years at Foodbuy LLC, rising to President and growing his division from $7M in revenue in 2007 to $130M by 2018. Before Foodbuy, nearly 13 years in foodservice distribution with Kraft Foodservice, Alliant and US Foodservice — including Corporate Vice President of Lodging, managing $800M+ in revenue. A University of Maryland graduate, he has founded several companies and serves on community and non-profit boards.
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Paul W. Davis
Partner & Co-Founder
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30+ years in hotel and restaurant operations and global supply chain. At Foodbuy LLC he developed non-food categories and delivered 40+ new contracts. In 2009 he was recruited to rebuild Wyndham Worldwide’s global supply chain as SVP, Strategic Sourcing — a team recognized in 2014 as the #1 Fortune 500 Supplier Diversity program in North America. From 1999–2009 he led strategic development of Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ global supply chain. A Penn State graduate.
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Aaron J. (AJ) Kramer
Partner
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Joined CORE as Partner in 2021, leading client relations and supporting growth and supplier negotiations. Previously Sr. Director, Market Development at Foodbuy LLC, overseeing a $700M portfolio of high-profile hotel customers with zero attrition. From 1993–2011 he built a standout career at Sysco Corporation, culminating as West Coast Florida Regional Manager managing 75 associates and $200M+ in annualized sales. A University of Arizona marketing graduate.
The CREW
The team your engagement runs through.
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Kon Han
Sr. Vice President, Procurement
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A procurement and supply-chain professional with nearly 20 years focused on hospitality and leisure. Spent much of his career at Starwood and Wyndham across IT procurement, professional and financial services, operating supplies and equipment, F&B, fitness, golf and retail. Most recently Sr. Vice President, Head of Supply Chain at Drive Shack / Puttery.
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Scott Wendell
Sr. Vice President, Systems & Technology
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Began in the family textile-manufacturing business building inventory systems and serving as CFO, then founded several businesses. Spent twenty years at Resource Title, LLC as CIO, COO and CFO. An expert at turning market, process and financial data into systems and actionable measures that drive operations and client value.
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John Reardon
Sr. Vice President, Strategic Sourcing
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20 years of strategic-sourcing and global supply-chain leadership in hospitality. Developed several leading next-generation sourcing organizations and led a large, high-performance sourcing group at Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Leads several strategic sourcing initiatives within CORE.
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Diana Brokaw
Vice President, Client Services
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30+ years in sales and business development, built through leadership roles in global organizations and non-profit work. Across major foodservice companies she has driven the growth of $1B+ in sales, directed national sales teams, opened new markets and launched verticals.
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Kevin Daly
Vice President, Growth & Development
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Has spent the majority of his career driving value for clients across hospitality, foodservice, technology and financial services. He brings deep experience developing new-business portfolios and a proven record of building winning sales and development teams.
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Raquel Kisielius
Vice President, Strategic Sourcing
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Three decades across hotel management — operations, sales, openings and procurement — at well-known hotel businesses in the U.S. and Latin America. A former Senior Director of Operational Programs at Sonesta International Hotels, with earlier sourcing leadership at Wyndham and Soho House. She helps clients approach procurement in the context of total operations and guest experience.
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Maxim Zakharchenko
Vice President, Strategic Sourcing & Contract Administration
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20+ years of global experience translating complex sourcing decisions into positive financial outcomes for companies like Sonesta, Wyndham Destinations, SAP and Verizon. His expertise spans indirect, IT, AI, MarTech and SaaS procurement, managing multi-million-dollar portfolios. At CORE he develops the indirect category support structure and brings AI between technology and delivery for a smarter, more efficient sourcing ecosystem.
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Austin Knapp
Director of Client Development & Growth
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Brings experience across hospitality, sales and finance to CLUB360, engaging and nurturing future and existing members through the joining process. He pairs hospitality-honed customer service with strategic thinking, negotiation and business-development skills. A supporter of the First Tee youth-development program.
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Allison Kramer
Client Coordinator
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Brings a background in client-facing roles across legal, beauty and pet-care settings, with a strong eye for detail and standout organizational and interpersonal skills. She welcomes and onboards new CLUB360 members, building relationships and guiding clients through setup to maximize savings.
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Victoria Mariash
Manager, Financial Analysis & Reporting
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Over a decade of foodservice and healthcare expertise transforming procurement and supply-chain data into clear, actionable insight. She translates complex datasets into practical business insight, builds dashboards, and works with clients to find opportunities and avoid pitfalls.
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Bruce Baker
Sr. Client Advisor
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Over 52 years in hospitality and foodservice. Ten years owning and operating restaurant businesses, then 42 years in sales, merchandising and operations at Sysco Corporation, including 12 years running contract sales for Sysco’s West Coast Division. Long active in industry associations and philanthropy.
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Jeff Johnson
Sr. Client Advisor
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A long-time strategic account sales executive who has managed large multi-location accounts. Over a 40-year career with PepsiCo he held a range of retail and foodservice roles, with particularly deep foodservice experience leading the Restaurant/Recreation Retail sales team for PepsiCo’s South Division.
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Bodhi
Chief Canine Resource Officer & CREW Mascot
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Specializes in client greetings and maintains a high standard for snack distribution across the organization. Known for his unwavering tail wags, he plays a key role in team morale. Outside CORE he enjoys neighborhood patrols, strategic naps, and quality control on all deliveries.
Contributors
Specialist expertise, on call.
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Roger Taylor
F&B Operations, Hotels & Restaurants
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Over 35 years building food-and-beverage operations — branding and re-branding, decor and design, culinary development and on-trend concepts. He has run luxury resorts and built one of the most profitable hotel F&B operations in the United States.
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Bob Hartnett
Health Advocacy & Decision Support
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28 years in healthcare and benefits consulting. He helps deliver consumer health-advocacy, decision-support and second-opinion programs that produce measurable ROI and net savings on healthcare spend for clients’ employees and members. Holds an MBA specializing in Healthcare Management and Marketing.
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Michael Williams
Food Thinker
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Highly skilled at working with teams to maximize food-and-beverage operations, culinary management, marketing, and product design and development.
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Gurvinder Patara
Global Supply Chain
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Based in the UK, a proven sourcing professional with over 20 years across international markets. He specializes in strategic solutions for hospitality, leisure, theme-park and corporate clients, combining marketing, procurement and business-development expertise.
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John Foster
Protein Expert
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37+ years in the meat-protein industry — protein and seafood sales, sourcing and contracting, hedging, trading, portion control and quality assurance. His career spans independent meat trading, Swift, Cargill, and 15 years at Buckhead Beef / Sysco, culminating as President & CEO of the Atlanta, New Jersey and Auburndale operations.
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Colleen Mahoney
Technology Sourcing & Strategic Negotiations
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Over 25 years of technology-related sourcing — software, SaaS, outsourcing, integration and professional services. She specializes in strengthening engagement between internal and external stakeholders and negotiating and managing multi-million-dollar contracts.
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Mark Smersky
F&B Consulting
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A seasoned food-and-beverage professional with a career spanning corporate F&B supply chain and operations as Executive Chef and F&B Director. A Culinary Institute of America graduate, he has overseen $350M+ in food spend and is a farm-to-fork expert in commodity sourcing and program management.
Work with us
Put this team to work.
A short conversation puts a century of hospitality and foodservice experience on your side of the table.