Interface: Diana Wynne

Diana Wynne on opening doors to fresh ideas

By Margaret Sheridan, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 3/15/2003

It is easier for Diana Wynne to deflect credit than to accept it: Her professional successes have come from people opening doors, she says. But those close to her insist she has a gravitational pull that connects people.

A foodservice career that began as an auditor with the Ponderosa chain in Dayton, Ohio, has taken Wynne to her current post as senior vice president and treasurer for Ponderosa’s parent, Metromedia Restaurant Group in Dallas. Next month, the 47-year-old executive tackles a new challenge when she becomes chairwoman of the Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF), a 1,700-member professional group that fosters leadership and career development for women executives in foodservice. Her title becomes official at the WFF’s Annual Leadership Development Conference in Dallas; she replaces outgoing Chair Patricia Miller Anton. In that role, Wynne will oversee the association’s growth and development as a financially independent, self-managed group. Among her goals is to position WWF for greater exposure and eventual partnerships with industries outside foodservice. Wynne also intends to rally for more diversity within the Forum and outside.

As the organization’s leader, she will be more than a role model, according to Pat Harris, a friend and mentor. “Diana will take the Forum to the next level,’’ says Harris, a founding member of WFF and chief diversity officer of McDonald’s Corp., Oak Brook, Ill. “She has the leadership and vision. As an African-American woman, she will highlight diversity in the industry and issues related to all women.’’

During a recent trip to WFF headquarters in Chicago, Wynne talked about goals for the organization, which was founded in 1989. At this important juncture in WFF’s history, her mission is to make all constituencies within foodservice aware of the need to involve more women in leadership roles and of the benefits inclusion yields. “It means good business. It matters at the bottom line,’’ says Wynne, adding that no business or industry can afford to ignore women’s economic clout and political power.

Wynne uses statistics to help companies understand the power women wield in business as consumers and decision-makers. Women purchase 80% of all consumer good and services. They comprise 46.5% of the workforce, a number that is predicted to jump to 61.9% by 2015. “When you think about those facts, it pays for any business to integrate female perspectives into every aspect of its operation. Women will impact any bottom line,’’ Wynne says.

The fact that male membership in WFF has doubled in the past three years means the presence of industry leaders such as Dick Rivera of Darden Restaurants, David Novak of YUM! Brands and Jon Luther of Allied Domecq will draw additional industry executives to WFF.

“Diana combines a hands-on approach with the ability to think strategically,” says Michael Kaufman, Metromedia Restaurant Group president and a member of WFF’s CEO Advisory Board. “She challenges people to go beyond what they think they’re capable of.’’

Wynne’s determination to make waves in boardrooms beyond foodservice is clear. An example is the WFF’s recently launched Executive on Loan program. Last March, General Mills became the first company to lend the organization an executive. Mary Bentley, a vice president in the retail bakery division, is serving a two-year position, full-time for WFF. Her role is to guide WFF as a fully independent, stand-alone association; WFF previously has relied on the organizational support of a management company. Four more companies have since pledged support through loaned executives, adds Wynne.

Wynne’s quiet energy and her challenge to every CEO to “walk the talk” has impact. “Diana is someone you gravitate to,’’ explains Mark Bendix, General Mills vice president and general manager of food services. Bentley’s vision coupled with Wynne’s ability to strategize will make the Forum a force at corporate levels, he adds. Though loaning an executive for two years is a major commitment by a company, Wynne is convinced of the gains for the individual and company. Skills acquired in two years would otherwise take 10 years to earn, she contends.

Wynne is equally committed to other initiatives that help WFF’s mission of advancing the careers of executive-level women. Ambitious mentoring programs are being rolled out for members, with one version offering online partnering while another follows a more structured matching of mentors and protégées.

“Technical competency is the admission ticket to play the game. But organizational and cultural competencies are necessary to round out leadership skills and ability. That’s where mentoring comes in,” she says. “You can’t learn those from a textbook. They come from mentors who give you insights about a company and how to conduct yourself in business. Mentoring serves a vital role in leadership development.”

Taking positions in accounting after college early on taught Wynne what she didn’t want in a career. “I didn’t enjoy the detail of [doing] tax work or working in a sterile environment. I wanted exposure to many people.’’ Wynne earned an undergraduate degree in political science and accounting from Spelman College, Atlanta. Between auditing positions in Chicago and later Dayton, she received CPA certification and earned a master’s degree in finance. When a position for auditor at Ponderosa grabbed her attention in 1979, she applied. Finally, she had found her calling.

“The restaurant business was fun and exciting, and suited me because it’s people-centered,’’ Wynne explains. Ponderosa, then a 700-unit chain operating primarily in the Midwest, fueled her energies. Visiting units, she’d “head for the kitchen, sit down with the cooks and servers, and listen to their side of the story. That helped me understand how the numbers got on the spreadsheet.’’

Pride in professional accomplishment is balanced by her pride in personal life. She shares credit for successfully juggling marriage, family and career with Phillip Wynne, her husband of nearly 25 years. “Phillip is the rock. He’s not a numbers guy. He’s the one who supplies fun and reminds me to get off the frenetic pace I created.”

Moving to Metromedia’s Dallas headquarters in 1993 was the right career move for Wynne but it meant uprooting her family and relationships with her parents and brother. But Dallas delivered career challenges for Wynne and educational opportunities for family.

When younger women tell her she has it all, she clarifies the point. “Women struggle with that idea. You first need to define what ‘all’ means. It has to be realistic to work. You make the choices, then stay true to yourself.”

Wynne and her husband have two daughters: Keesa, 20, and Brandi, 15. “They’d tell you I wasn’t the kind of mom who organized neighborhood bake sales. They only know me as a working mom.’’ But she adds that her daughters think it’s cool when Wynne flies around the country for speaking engagements or when she appears in the local newspaper, as she did after being named the Dallas Roundtable for Women in Foodservice’s Woman of the Year in 1997.