Todd Pahl, Central Michigan ’89, is the Chief Financial Officer of bd’s Mongolian Grill (formerly called bd’s Mongolian Barbecue.) He resides in Rochester, MI with his wife and two daughters.
DSF: Tell us about yourself.
TP: I have a wife, Laura, and two kids, Kendall and Addison, both girls, 7 and 4. I grew up in Grand Rapids, MI. After I graduated from CMU in ‘92, I worked in Grand Rapids until 2002 and then moved to the Detroit area when I joined bd’s in 2002.
DSF: What made you decide to go to Central Michigan?
TP: I wanted to go away for school. I looked at other schools, but decided on Central because of its great accounting program. I just wanted to get away from home and start building things on my own. It was only an hour and a half or two hours away, so it wasn’t too far.
DSF: What made you decide to join Delta Sigma Phi once you got onto campus?
TP: It was funny, because I had a guy who I lived with my freshman year talked me into checking the fraternities out. I had talked to several groups. The week of rush there was a Saturday morning event. They rolled me out of bed and said “you’re going.” My roommate at the time, Jeff Van Rhee, Kevin Riddle and I all went over and played basketball. We had a great time, met a few of the guys, and investigated a little more. I was really happy with my choice.
DSF: What leadership positions did you hold in the chapter?
TP: I was the Treasurer for one year. I was a natural for this position, because I was the guy in the chapter going after the accounting degree, so it worked out well.
DSF: Tell us a little bit about your career path prior to working for bd’s Mongolian Grill.
TP: When I got out of Central, I went to work for Deloitte & Touche. I had passed my CPA exam a couple weeks after I graduated, so it was great not having to study for that exam when everyone else was. I was there for two years, and then with the natural progression of public accounting – either moving up or moving to a client – one of the clients came calling for a Controller job. It was a good company in the restaurant business, and I accepted.
Public Accounting just wasn’t going to be right for me, so after two years, I thought that I should just start out on a new path. My uncle was actually a controller in a smaller company, so I kind of knew that I was interested in corporate accounting. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I got out of school, so that’s why I wanted to go into public accounting. It allows you to see a lot of companies, and you learn a lot about different cultures and office environments.
DSF: So now let’s talk about your current role as Chief Financial Officer at bd’s Mongolia Grill (formerly bd’s Mongolian Barbecue.) Tell us a little about your responsibilities.
TP: In this company like the last one, I pretty much am in charge of all accounting, finance, IT, and Legal along with a dotted line to HR. Recently, I took over Development responsibilities. Basically, once we agree to do business with you as a franchisee, I take it from the legal point documenting the agreements all the way to turning the restaurant over to the Training Department just prior to opening.
DSF: For those brothers who don’t know about Mongolian Barbecue, can you tell us a little about the company itself?
TP: Bd’s Mongolian Grill has 30 restaurants, 10 company and 20 franchise owned. We changed the name from Mongolian Barbecue to Grill last year and will be retrofitting all of our existing restaurants as we move forward We’ll be at 32 at the end of the year, but perhaps 33 or 34 if some stars align. We’re growing really well, and have a lot of new franchisees coming on board and building restaurants.
Bd’s is an Asian Stirfry restaurant, so you go through the buffet and put your meats, veggies and sauces in a cup and we’ll cook it up for you on our grill, which is normally a 6 foot grill that gets to 600 degrees. It takes about two and a half to three minutes to cook. Then you sit down. It’s very interactive, and our customers really like us because of the control aspect, where they control what goes in their bowl. So, if you’re a vegetarian, if you love meat, or if you’re on a special diet, we can pretty much cover what you need. We even have Glutin-free sauces, so there’s something for everybody that they can eat. Everyone loves the fun and energy that we have, and along with the endless variety of choices. Actually, the web site’s (www.gomongo.com) probably the best place to go to see how it works, as it does a great job in showing what the process is like.
DSF: What do you enjoy about working for bd’s Mongolian Grill?
TP: If you’re going to work in the restaurant business, you’d better like people, because that’s what this business is all about. You spend a lot of money getting a restaurant up and going and on labor and food, but if you aren’t in the people business, you aren’t going to get very far. A lot of competitors try to copy our concept, but they aren’t as successful because they can’t duplicate the culture. We invest a lot in with our training programs, and at the same time we take care of them. Our motto: Friends Taking care of Friends. It’s a two-way street though – we take care of them and they take care of us.
DSF: On your web site, it states that there is actually a franchise in Mongolia. Can you talk a little about that, and how that came about?
TP: We are the first American restaurant franchise in Mongolia. Our founder had always wanted to try to make some sort of connection back to Mongolia. He went there with our other partner in the late 90s. They just didn’t find anything that they felt was going to be beneficial. Low and behold, a couple years ago, a guy who runs a travel agency and a couple restaurants over there contacted us because he also runs the Mongolian Youth Development Foundation, and he wanted to meet with Billy (the founder.) We weren’t quite sure what he wanted, whether he just wanted a donation or check, but Billy met with him in DC. He had brought Mongolian Barbecue back to Mongolia by copying stuff from our web site and trips to the US because they essentially abandoned that style of cooking. Basically Billy and other members of our executive team went over to Mongolia on a fact finding mission and they were talking about what they wanted to do. What came out of it was to franchise the restaurant. A portion of the profits every year go back into the Mongolian Youth Development Foundation. We even created our own Foundation called Mongo Charities where we raise money here to help the Mongolian Youth Development Foundation. This year, that franchise won two awards equating to the safest restaurant and the best restaurant in Mongolia.
DSF: What are the main metropolitan areas where your company is focused?
TP: We’re right now, focused on the Midwest, and casually stepping out from that to spots where it makes sense, basically to major cities. We are now in Florida, and that is going well. (Editor’s note: The company has restaurants in 11 states.)
DSF: Talk a little about the franchising philosophy and how that works.
TP: Our philosophy has been that if you are in an area and you own the market, you’re going to work that market differently than a corporate manager Also, if you’re a franchisee, you’re going to know more about that market, you’re going to know what’s coming up, what’s not working, where things are going, and really living in that market and making a difference being a part of that community. And so, there are markets where we’re going to go as a company, but for some markets like Pittsburgh for example, we’ve decided it’s going to be a franchise market. It’s only going to hold 2-4 restaurants and with the topography of the area, someone’s got to know how Pittsburgh works better than we can sitting in our office here.
DSF: Where do you see yourself in the future professionally?
TP: I used to think about that quite a bit, but I have really stopped thinking about it. I want to enjoy the moment and work hard at what I’m doing, and wherever things may fall or opportunities may arise, I’ll evaluate them as they happen. I have a general idea as to what I want to do for my family, but beyond that, I just want to work for a good company, and make a difference with it.
DSF: What do you like to do in your spare time?
TP: I like to work out and golf. I ran in the Marine Corps Marathon in DC last fall and did a triathlon in Novi, MI two years ago. We just moved to the Rochester area so between my additional work responsibilities and the move, I don’t have any major event I am training for. I like to stay busy with my kids as well.
DSF: Who has had a big impact on your life?
TP: There are bits and pieces that I have taken from so many people. Obviously, my parents had a huge influence on me. I think the people I have worked for and have worked with have had a tremendous influence on me. I think if you don’t take stuff away from everybody then you’re probably not trying or not open to learning from others.
DSF: What advice would you give to the undergraduates and alumni to be successful?
TP: I think you have to work hard, and when the opportunity arises, you need to take advantage of it. Sometimes the opportunity may require a whole new level of thinking that you haven’t done before. Sometimes it may require working harder than you thought was hard. It just requires different things when it arises, but you need to go for it if its something you want. At the end of the day, you don’t want to say to yourself, “I wish I would have done that…”
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