DSR OF THE MONTH Archive

After a long and successful career working for high-profile, high-volume foodservice operations in Florida and Georgia, co-owning a restaurant, and landing a management position at The Greenbrier Resort upon her move home to West Virginia, Frannie Waybright finally found her true calling. At age 48, she’s a rookie DSR who in less than a year on the street has established herself as a rising star and discovered that foodservice sales is where her heart is.

George Morgan may not be Greek, but he has wholeheartedly embraced “philotimo,” a Greek concept espoused by the Mouskondis family, owners of Nicholas & Co., where Morgan has been a DSR for nearly a decade. Tough to translate directly, it has to do with love of honor, Morgan says – a sense of love for family, community and country; a joyful hospitality and an obligation to one another to make things better and do what’s right.

George Mansour, a top DSR for Cheney Brothers, Inc., has earned a reputation as a slow and steady achiever. Over his 14 years in foodservice sales, he’s built up a $5-million territory made up mostly of independent restaurants along Florida’s Space Coast. Like the rest of the state, his market has been hit hard by the recession and it now faces the loss of additional jobs with the discontinuation of the space shuttle program. But tough times or not, Mansour manages to continue growing.

For Shawn Kirk, a rising star DSR at Yancey’s Food Service, becoming a sales person was never part of the plan. A one-time stay-at-home mom, Kirk joined Yancey’s nine years ago as an entry-level customer service rep. She was soon promoted to a lead position in that department and later was bumped up to national account management. Just under two years ago, she was assigned a high-profile customer that, while part of a national chain, had just a couple of units locally, didn’t buy on contract and needed dedicated attention.