Jerry Edwards - Chef's Expression

From humble beginnings, Jerry Edwards has successfully grown his catering business to one of the most successful in the region while still maintaining those key principles that helped him climb his way to the top.  In 2010, Chef’s Expressions earned the prestigious “Caterer of the Year” award from the Restaurant Association of Maryland and the “Event of the Year” from the National Association of Catering Executives.
How it all started - Jerry had worked in the food business, but found himself selling alarms. He wasn’t particularly thrilled about his profession and knew he wanted to find passion in a career. In 1982, he had the opportunity to purchase a sandwich shop.  With a mere $2,ooo in hand, Jerry purchased what would become Gourmet by Chef’s Express. The sandwich shop drew customers from the above office complex, but there wasn’t enough to sustain the business. He knew he needed to create a delivery business and expand his market reach in the area in order to build his customer base.
Jerry put an ad in the Towson Times seeking attractive women to wear old fashioned cigar trays and walk around Towson selling his sandwiches at lunch time. The delivery business grew with just Jerry, a staff of two part-time employees and Towson students making deliveries. He started to build a reputation in the area, and within two years opened Gourmet Shop in Timonium.
In 1985, one of Jerry’s customers asked if he would cater her son’s Christening - and at $6/person, a catering business had been born. Years later, the same woman would ask Jerry of Chef’s Expressions to cater her son’s graduation from the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
In 1991, Jerry realized he needed to create a steady flow of catering customers and hired his first salespeople.  By 1995, Chef’s Expressions was was growing to be more than Jerry could handle alone, and brought on business partner, Vito Piazza. Four years later, the catering business started to take off and Jerry Edwards, Executive Chef John Walsh, and the Event Design Consultants were instrumental for setting the standards for the catering industry.
Jerry is active in many charities for children’s issues and adult diseases. Among those is Meals on Wheels where he spearheads a Chef’s Dinner that has raised over $40,000 in the past five years. Jerry hosts a fundraiser for St. Vincent’s Center which has raised $70,000 to date; but his favorite time is when he goes to the center to work and play with the children. As a Chef he teaches at Baltimore City Schools for the “Days of Taste” program, which directs children toward healthy eating and food preparation. Each year, Chef’s Expressions donates food, labor and personal time to the following Charities and non-profit organizations: Cystic Fibrosis, Healthcare for the Homeless, March of Dimes, Meals on Wheels, and many others.
Jerry is active in various local and regional organizations, and sits on the board of The American Institute of Wine and Food; The National Academy Foundation where he hires culinary interns from the Academy to work in his company; National Association of Catering Executives, where he is one of eight people to be inducted into their Hall of Fame, and the Food Editor for Catersource Magazine. Jerry’s achievements are impressive and endless. His honors include being recognized by Special Events Magazine as a top 20 industry leader to watch; by Catering Magazine as Wedding Caterer of the Year 2000; by The Academy of Tourism and Travel as Caterer of the Year 2000 and nominated as Industry Leader of the Year 2004.  He was the first Catering member of the Year for NACE in 1992 and 1993.  In 2004, he won the Nation’s Capitol “Iron Chef” competition and also won the Baltimore NACE Iron Chef competition.     He has won over 30 industry competitions including three ACF Gold Medals and the prestigious “Best Chef” for the Meals on Wheels Culinary Extravaganza.
His recipes and accomplishments have been seen in the following National Magazines: Food Arts, Special Events, Catering Magazine, Catersource, Culinary Trends, Restaurants and Institutions, Restaurant Hospitality and Chef.
Jerry lives in Baltimore with his wife Julie Brown-Edwards and his two daughters Amanda and Stephanie. He recently completed a 1 year stint as host of "Talk Cuisine", a radio program that focuses on the pleasures of entertaining and cooking.
Jerry Edwards is a successful entrepreneur because he continually watched the trends and he knew that by filling a niche for high end catering in an area where there was a need to fill was a recipe for success.
I had the pleasure of meeting jerry and Julie Edwards and was thrilled to do a large scale landscaping project for them at their lovely home in Timonium, Maryland.
www.charmedmag.com/.../jerry-edwards-owner-of-chefs-expressions/
www.jerryedwards.com/chef.shtml

Submitted by: Sharon Seborg

James McClintock - a True Entrepreneur

     My father James McClintock is a true entrepreneur in my opinion.  He works for Environmental Protection Agency, working to help stop pollution from ruining our environment.  He also teaches science at George Mason University.  On top of that, he owns his own business called DNA Diagnostics in which lawyers ask him to test evidence from suspects and victims in criminal cases.  He has worked for the EPA ever since he got out of college.  He got a doctorate degree in microbiology.  He loves anything and everything about science. 

            He works for the EPA to help come up with ideas on how to go about saving the environment from pollution.  For example, he is working on a project to help the Chesapeake Bay from pollution.  His dream since he was young was to be in charge of the whole EPA but since he is close to retiring, he decided to take up teaching as a side job.  The side job to help pay for bills became a secondary permanent job.  He taught at AACC before receiving his job at George Mason University teaching microbiology.  He teaches what he got his degree in so he is quite experienced in the field.  He wants to help those in trying to get their degree in that field now so they can do well in the future with a job related to that field of study. 

            He had also always dreamed of doing something related to criminal justice as well.  He started his business DNA Diagnostics so he could own his own business related to criminal justice and science.  Lawyers will ask him to test evidence from suspects and from victims in such cases involving rape, assault, and murder.  This way he is helping keep criminals off the streets but also doing something he enjoys related to science and criminal justice.  He came up with the idea to start his business because he wanted to be his own boss so he could do things the way he wanted.

            That is the meaning of being an entrepreneur by making a business from ideas of what you like to do.  He worked doing what he wanted to do by going to college and studying what he enjoyed learning about.  When he realized he couldn’t go any further in the EPA, he took what he knew about science and turned into his own business.  He chose to make a business that will always be in need.  There will always be evidence in criminal cases that needs to be tested to tell who committed the crime.

By: John McClintock

Harold MacDonald - Plumber

       The entrepreneur I decided to write about is my father who has owned his own plumbing business for over 5 years now. My father started off in the plumbing business after coming back from a tour in the Navy when he was 21 years old. He joined the union and became an apprentice for a couple years as he moved his way up in the company he worked for at the time, Saia Plumbing. He eventually became a journeyman plumber, which is a licensed plumber who can complete jobs alone. He worked for Saia until around 1991 when he was laid off and got another job at W.L. Gary Plumbing company in D.C.

            My father worked for W.L. Gary for over fifteen years and in that time became a Master Plumber, the highest skill and licensed level a plumber can achieve. Throughout his time with W.L. Gary my father became one of the company’s most trusted and hard working employees and was offered a higher paying job as a supervisor. My father declined the job offer because of his love for being hands on and actually doing the work instead of inspecting it.

Around 2005 my father left W.L. Gary to start his own plumbing business. He is now the owner of MacDonald Plumbing LLC where he is the main plumber for the company and basically runs a one man business. On larger jobs he will hire some of his old friends from the business and even me as his apprentice. My dad is a very busy man, taking care of all the customer jobs and while maintaining the legal documents and certifications he must have to keep his business legit. His philosophy on owning his own business is that if he can get paid by a larger company for doing the same work as he can by just being the sole profiteer of his own company. My father is his own boss, and still is one of the hardest working people I have ever met. His expectations and goals don’t stop, he only wants to make himself and his business more successful. 

Dietrich Mateschitz - Red Bull

Dietrich Mateschitz is an Austrian entrepreneur, who cofounded the energy drink Red Bull. He didn’t even invent the product, he founded an existing Thai product called “Krating Daeng” and ran with it. He took that recipe and tweaked the formula, which soon turned into what is now known as Red Bull. Dietrich used his marketing and entrepreneurial skills to the ultimate. He targeted the youth and marketed to them in so many ways. He made a simple product stand out from all competitors. Simple but effective marketing, Red Bull, “it gives you wings.” It took Mateschitz about three years of hard work and experimenting to get it right, but when he did the product boomed.
He is currently a billionaire, and many successful events of his own. The Croation entrepreneur is known as a marketing genious due to the effectiveness of all of his advertising campaigns. Mateschitz has also dipped his fingers in the vast world of sports in various ways. He also owns a nascar team which is called, "Team Redbull", the successful business man also owns two soccer teams in Brazil and Germany. Another important fadct is that Mateschitz company Redbull, hosts many big time sporting events including, Redbull rampage, Redbull Crashed Ice, Redbull X-figthers, Redbull Air Race World Championship, Redbull Flugtag, and many more. Red Bull also sponsors many big time athletes such as Travis Pastrana.

Dietrich Mateschitz is the ultimate entrepreneur in my eyes, because he did not create a new product, he found an existing product and , stumbled upon the idea for Red Bull. He then used his great entrepreneurial mindset and advertizing expertise to seek out the best target market which is the, and focus on selling to them. This worked out very well because kids aspire to be like a lot of athletes they endorse. All of his success led him on a path to become one of the world's billionaires.


Submitted by: Dilan Desai