Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue III, 2013 | Page 16

2013 MVP
By Debbie Selinsky

Above and Beyond

Steve Baliva used his Friday’s to go the extra mile in Hurricane Sandy

J

ust before Hurricane Sandy
slammed into the New Jersey
coast, Steve Baliva was huddling
with team members from his area
T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants to prepare for
what many forecasted to be the storm
of the century.
“We knew it was coming and thought
that we had five restaurants in the path
of it,” says the Tom’s River, N.J., resident. “Turns out we had seven—five
in Jersey and two on the border of the
Pennsylvania side. We were laying up
plans to close down on Sunday, Oct.

14

Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue III, 2013

Name: Steven Baliva
Title: VP Restaurant Operations
Company: Metz Culinary

Management

No. of units by brand: T.G.I.
Friday’s, 13; Ruth’s Chris Steak
House, 1; Wolfgang Puck Express,
1; Lucky’s Sporthouse, 1
Age: 51
Family: Married
Years in franchising: 15
Years in current position: 10

29, since we knew we’d lose power.”
Baliva, T.G.I. Friday’s 2011 Franchisee of the Year and vice president of
restaurant operations for Metz Culinary
Management, lives within 10 minutes of
several of the restaurants. So on Tuesday he headed out to check on things.
Four of the restaurants—along with 85
percent of Ocean County, N.J.—had no
power. “There was wind damage and
we’d lost awnings, but we weren’t close
enough to the water for flooding, so it
could have been much worse.”
By Tuesday night, Baliva had mobi-