Ronald N. Paul (Family photo) By Bob Goldsborough | Chicago TribunePUBLISHED: December 4, 2024 at 2:49 PM CSTRon Paul co-founded the Chicago-based food service research and consulting firm Technomic and was a widely recognized expert on food industry trends.“He was an innovator, coining many new restaurant industry terms, including ‘fast casual,’ ‘home meal replacement’ and ‘convenient meal solutions,’” said former Technomic President Darren Tristano.Paul, 90, died of a brief illness Nov. 8 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said his daughter, Karen Lucente. He had lived in the Streeterville neighborhood for more than 40 years.Born Ronald Neale Paul in Chicago, Paul grew up on the West Side and graduated from Austin High School. He received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern University in 1957 and an MBA a year later.Paul taught statistics for a time at Roosevelt University and worked for a business unit at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Research Institute. In 1966, Paul teamed with a colleague, Aaron Lebedow, to form Technomic.Paul’s area of oversight within Technomic was to collect data and to build a database of information involving food service companies, while Lebedow led a group providing market planning and strategic planning to non-food companies such as General Electric and Westinghouse that eventually also worked with overseas clients.“He did a hell of a job in creating that business, and he was well-known in the industry, and the business was well-known in the industry,” Lebedow said. “He really built a special kind of practice in that area.”Lebedow said that what Paul did well was to create an annual study of trends in the food service industry for restaurant clients. Paul also “spoke at every major event” in the food service world, Lebedow said, and clients thought Paul “walked on water.”“He accomplished an enormous amount in the food service industry,” Lebedow said. “He was well-known and well-respected and someone who could guide the growth of the industry, and he had this wonderful program that he could repeat every year.”In 1987, the two parts of Technomic split, with Paul and Lebedow going their separate ways. Paul continued to work to expand Technomic’s food service business, generating consumer surveys and working to predict food trends. Paul also enjoyed mentoring younger executives, helping to serve food service clients and speaking at conferences, his daughter said.Paul had a reputation for walking the halls of Technomic, checking in on his employees and being genuinely curious on how they were doing, Tristano said.“Ron was the consummate entrepreneur and mentor,” Tristano said. “He believed in growing his business by hiring, supporting and retaining good people. His remarks always included the question, ‘What can I do to support you?’”One of the ways Paul worked to understand food service trends was to dine out frequently, Tr
Lun. Dic 23rd, 2024
