About

Roy MacNaughton has more than thirty years of international hospitality industry experience. He has lived and worked in Canada, the USA, the UK, The Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, and Australia.

As a teenager initially beginning in the radio industry, he soon made a switch into the tourism and hospitality business, graduating from Toronto’s Ryerson University in Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management.

He then worked in the daily operations side of the restaurant, resort hotel, fast food (QSR) and supply side of the hospitality industry. While in Australia, as the National Food Services Director for the then largest retailer in the southern hemisphere, he helped design and launch the food service operations in the first three centers, in a chain of major shopping centers Down Under. In Trinidad & Tobago, he helped turn a vacated U.S. WW II vintage naval hospital into a modern hospitality and tourism industry training facility.

Roy returned to school at age 29, choosing the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario where he earned his MBA. He was one of only two graduating students in that year that chose not to attend any job interviews. Instead, he, a fellow student and one of their professors, formed a partnership to provide specialized marketing services to companies in the advertising sector and the hospitality industry.

Within one year, Roy went on to establish his own firm, Hospitality Marketing, with a Ryerson classmate. Together, they provided marketing research, planning and advertising services to well-known firms including McDonalds, American Express, Four Seasons Hotels, Hilton International, KFC, Wendy’s, H.J. Heinz, Johnson & Johnson, and many others.

Within six years, he was hired away by one of his own clients, (the second largest restaurant company in Canada), as the Executive Vice-President of Marketing. After two years in this position, Roy was transferred to the U.S., as President and Chief Operating Officer of their fledgling American subsidiary. In two years, Roy grew that division from $3.2 million to $72 million, with more than 3,000 employees in six states.

After a few years as the COO with this firm, the call of the consulting business brought him back to owning and operating his own consulting firm. He specializes in marketing for solo entrepreneurs, independent restaurateurs/hoteliers, industry suppliers and related hospitality businesses.

Roy loves the excitement of seeing people learn and businesses grow. As a part-time, adjunct professor, he has taught university MBAs and undergraduate hospitality students in the U.S., Canada and the West Indies, including at Johnson & Wales in Miami. He has recently taken over the management and upcoming renovation of www.RestaurantU.com, a one-of-a-kind web site designed for hospitality industry students (of all ages). It was originally conceived, designed and operated by famed hospitality industry educator, Peter Langlois of Houston, Texas.  Additionally, Roy serves as the ‘virtual professor of restaurant marketing' at this innovative site.

He writes weekly newspaper columns on marketing and has been a Contributing Editor for Today's Restaurant News for the last 11 years. Roy writes online for many hospitality industry publications, blogs and sites, including the new social networking site, www.FohBoh.com, the "Voice of the Global Restaurant Industry".

You may reach Roy at: roy(at)restaurantmarketingjournal.com