Bruce McAdams

Professor Centre for Business and Social Entrepreneurship

  • Guelph ON

McAdams joined the faculty in January of 2009 after more than twenty years leadership experience in the Ontario hospitality industry

Contact

Social

Biography

After starting his management career in operations and training with Darden Restaurants, McAdams joined Toronto based fine dining company, Oliver & Bonacini Restaurant in 1997, serving most recently as it’s Vice President of Operations until 2008.

McAdams has taught “Leadership” to Food and Beverage Management students at George Brown College since 2007 and received his sommelier accreditation in 2001 from the internationally recognized Court of Master Sommeliers. In 2007, McAdams was inducted as a “Fellow” of the Ontario Hostelry Institute (OHI) for his work in creating and chairing the OHI’s Top 30 under 30 program which recognizes Ontario’s most promising hospitality leaders.

Industry Expertise

Education/Learning
Food and Beverages
Research

Areas of Expertise

Operations & Training
Operations Analysis
Sustainability in the Foodservice Industry

Education

University of Guelph

B.Comm

Hotel & Food Administration

1989

University of Guelph

M.A.

Leadership

2009

Media Appearances

PJ’s Puts Food for Thought on the Menu

University of Guelph  online

2012-06-20

Restaurants have long focused on the economic aspect of sustainability: managing food costs and menu prices so that the business can make a profit. These skills have been taught for years as part of the food service courses in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Over the past year, though, Prof. Mike von Massow and Prof. Bruce McAdams have been working on expanding students’ understanding of all aspects of sustainability.

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Courses

Operations Analysis (4190)

Professor McAdams teaches Operations Analysis (4190), the school’s fourth year ‘capstone’ course that challenges students to use knowledge gained from their first three years though the use of ‘real life, real time’ case studies.

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Managing Service Quality (6550)

Professor McAdams teaches Managing Service Quality (6550) in the Hospitality MBA program.

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Articles

Enhancing Students Learning in Sustainable Practices through Incorporating a Triple Bottom Approach in a Restaurant Operations Course

Journal of Tourism Research

2013-01-01

Sustainability is an increasingly important concept for all hospitality students to understand before entering the workforce. New curriculum employing more sustainable content was introduced at the University of Guelph’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Using the school’s restaurant, PJ’s, which is used as laboratory for course delivery, students were asked to take a triple bottom line approach in its operation. Curriculum additions required students to calculate nutritional analysis and complete life cycle assessments of menu items. Other sustainable improvement such as composting, the increased purchasing of local food and beverages and waste reduction were also introduced during the course of the academic year. This paper provides a framework for other hospitality institutions to incorporate a triple bottom line approach to operating student run restaurants. The increase of scores for the ‘sustainability’ related learning objectives show us that the project was successful in introducing students to sustainability topics. With the embedding of new sustainably focused curriculum in a third year restaurant operations course students became more aware of the effect that restaurants have on their environment and in their communities.

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