Shelia Turner

Shelia brings insights gained from many years of diverse hospitality experience in projects ranging from mixed-use privately-owned businesses, large corporations, hotels and independent restaurants. She is attuned to the intricacies of balancing the rigorous demands of a team. Shelia is passionate about the challenge of integrating the various requirements and limitations of a project into a cohesive and successful solution focused on achieving the client’s business goals and project vision.

John Mootz

As a third-generation restaurant and hospitality executive, John cares deeply about delivering exceptional value, both to restaurants and to their guests. With a B.S. in Business Administration and also a Master’s in Foodservice Management from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, he has partnered on many successful restaurants throughout North America.

John brings a unique perspective of having run both independent and chain restaurants, as well as numerous hotel restaurants and food and beverage departments ranging from casual dining to Forbes 5-Star.

Rafe Gabel

A sommelier with an emphasis on Italian and California wine plus extensive beer and spirit training, Rafe has developed and overseen beverage programs for dozens of restaurants throughout the U.S. and has a deep understanding of the hospitality ecosystem. Rafe has  diverse experience that ranges from Michelin to casino to Forbes 5-Star.

With outstanding relationship building, training and presentation skills, he is a results-oriented business professional with proven abilities in strategic planning, managing critical paths to countless openings, improving efficiency of restaurant operations while ensuring that the changes in optimize productivity, bottom line, from start to finish. 

Yalile Fajer

Yalile, originally from Mexico City and a Puccini Group alumni, possesses over fourteen years of experience in food beverage, and catering fields; including eight of those years managing weddings and events in Las Vegas. Her experience is not only limited to hospitality, but also living in the Silicon Valley, she has dedicated a number of years as a Customer Success Manager for tech companies with the primary goal of optimizing the company’s revenue and building a long-lasting relationship with clients. Her passion for marketing helps her identify her clients needs and implement the best digital marketing strategies. On a regular day, she enjoys a cup of coffee or two and learning new languages.