Michael Barnes
President

As founder and President, Michael brings over 3 decades of premier hospitality industry expertise to MSC.

With a degree in Economics from the University of Illinois, he started his career with fourteen years in service with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises as they grew from five restaurants to $90M in annual sales. He then joined Fresh Ground Inc utilizing his skills in marketing, budgeting, forecasting, lease and P&L analysis to consult and develop a restaurant concept for the Chicago Loop.

After three years, he accepted the position to head the marketing of Blue Plate Catering, Chicago’s largest caterer with over three thousand events per year and two restaurants – MCafe at Museum of Contemporary Art and Rhapsody at Symphony Center. Among his many successes there:

Tripled MCafe’s previous year sales and turned the previous year’s loss into a 14% profit, in ten months; Increased Rhapsody’s sales 10.8% and turned the previous year’s loss into a profit of 10% in nine months; Co-marketing programs increasing revenue with The Field Museum, Chicago Historical Society, Symphony Center, Union Station, Gallery 37, and City of Chicago; Website development for BPC and Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s $500K web project – cso.org; And prolonged national exposure with ABC’s Good Morning America.