Our Executive Team
Vine Solutions is a team comprised of some of the best and brightest restaurateurs and financial advisors in the Nation. We strive to hire a staff that brings a diverse and elite knowledge to our client base. Most everyone on our executive team has had first hand experience in opening and operating their own restaurants. We all have a great passion for the culinary world and a deep personal understanding of the restaurant business.
Executive Team
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Edward N. Levine, CEO
Edward N. Levine is the CEO and founder of Vine Solutions, Inc. He is also CEO and founder of Vine Dining Enterprises, Inc. and the developer and principal partner of the Left Bank brasseries located in Larkspur, Menlo Park, and San Jose (www.leftbank.com) and LB Steak located in San Jose (www.lbsteak.com). Since 1987, Ed has been involved in the development and financial management of hundreds of full service restaurants.
From 1987 to 1991 he was Chief Financial Officer of Il Fornaio (America) Corporation; a multiple unit, venture capital backed Italian restaurant and bakery company. Ed developed the business plan for the strategic redirection of this company and co-led the restructuring and turnaround. He was instrumental in opening five full-service restaurants in three years with average annual unit volumes exceeding $4 million. In addition to managing all financial and administrative functions, Ed reorganized and directed the production bakery division.
Prior to Il Fornaio, Ed was the Planning Director of Collins Foods International; a $700 million, publicly traded Los Angeles based food service Company with multi-concept/unit locations.
From 1993 to 1995, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, a multiple unit microbrewery restaurant company. He fulfilled these duties on a consulting basis and repositioned and grew the company from two to five units. In December 1995, majority control of Gordon Biersch was sold. During Ed's tenure, the valuation of the Company's equity increased approximately five fold.
Ed received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1981 and a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from the University of British Columbia in 1978.
Ed is a long-term member of the Alliance of Chief Executives. He also serves on Stanford University’s Visiting Committee for Residential Housing and Dining Enterprises. He is also a Board Member of the Tom Steel Clinic, a Marin based AIDS treatment center. Ed has served as a guest lecturer at Penn State University, Stanford, as well as the Commonwealth Club. He was previously a member of the Board of Directors of Pasta Pomodoro, Inc. until it was sold in late 2009.
Residing in Marin County, CA, Ed spends his free time hiking with his dog, Coco, playing disc golf, dining out and adventuring.
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John Priest, VP of Operations
John Priest is the VP of Operations for Vine Solutions, Inc. John joined the Vine Solutions team in 1999 as a GL Accountant and soon found himself working in various positions to help develop Vine Solutions into a full scale accounting and consulting practice, eventually becoming a Client Manager.
In December of 2006, John took the reigns as VP of Operations where he guided the company to significant and sustained revenue growth. He has overseen the development of building individual departments for Accounts Payable and Payroll needs, expansion of the business into additional markets, and remains driven to continuously implement new technologies and strategies to help all clients of Vine Solutions compete in the complex restaurant business of today.
Before coming aboard at Vine Solutions, John has worked in the restaurant industry for over 12 years in many different positions and departments. Through this, he developed an extensive restaurant knowledge base and found his passion in helping others in the industry to succeed. John worked at Stars Restaurant as a waiter for many years before becoming their Controller and here found how important thorough and timely financial and accounting information is to a restaurant owner and operator.
John received his Master's in Business Administration from California State University, Bakersfield in 1992. John currently lives in San Francisco and enjoys collecting and drinking wine, Lakers basketball, Raiders football, and traveling to exotic places.
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Elissa Phillips, Director of Southern California Operations
Elissa Phillips is the Director of Southern California Operations for Vine Solutions, Inc. Elissa brings to Vine a background in both finance and accounting, in addition to her operations background from owning and operating her own Los Angeles restaurant and working in other restaurants.
Prior to working in the restaurant industry, Elissa worked for Bear Stearns as an Investment Banking Analyst in their New York office.
Elissa received her BBA and Masters in Accounting from The University of Michigan Ross Business School in 1999 and 2000, and her MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University in 2004. Elissa is also a certified and licensed CPA.
Elissa has co-chaired Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation LA event for the past three years, and is a member of the advisory board for C-CAP Los Angeles. She also serves on the Stern Alumni Committee and the Brentwood School Alumni Executive Committee. Elissa doesn't miss a week at the Santa Monica's farmers' market and uses seasonal ingredients to inspire her cooking and to experiment with new flavors for her homemade ice cream.
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Paula Brannon, Human Resources Consultant
Paula offers Human Resource consulting in areas such as compensation, benefits, compliance, employment law, workers' compensation, and employee relations and retention to Vine Solutions' clients. Paula has extensive experience in the restaurant industry. She works closely with senior management to develop and implement a human resources strategy compatible with the client's objectives and mission statement.
Paula is currently the Director of Human Resources for the Left Bank restaurant group and previously, was Director of Human Resources for RUI, a privately held restaurant corporation based in Seattle, Washington. Paula holds several professional certifications, including Human Resources Generalist, The Advanced Certificate of Employment Law, and the McGraw/Hill Supervision Series Seminar Trainer. She is also a member of the Society for Human Resource Management.
