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November/December 2015 11 A Talk With Myers CEO Charlie Fusari about his 35-Plus Years in the Industry and What He's Learned From Walking in his Channel Partners' Shoes "In any position that I've taken on that's new, I've always lis- tened more than I talked early on. Even four years ago, when I came to Myers Restaurant Supply, I listened and I observed for quite a while. I didn't get up on a soapbox and tell people what to do and what had to be done, I didn't come here and make a ton of changes. I came here and I listened to what people were saying, to what their challenges were on a day-to-day basis and how they did their jobs. I observed, and then when I felt it was going to be most effective, I made the shift. I started doing a lot of talking and a lot of mentoring but you can't do that right out of the box, at any job." "The Bowery Taught Me, New York Taught Me" Wilhelm, a then rep based in Southern California, remem- bers when he first met Fusari in the mid-80s. "I picked him up from LAX and he had just been appointed national sales man- ager at Dura-Ware," he says. "Charlie was a pretty young guy but he had some street smarts. Before he went to Dura-Ware, he was a territory salesperson for Bloomfield in New York and had been baptized under fire on the Bowery. Prior to that, he had worked five years at Intedge in New Jersey." Training back then was different, says Fusari, who got his start at mom-and-pop supplier, Intedge, assembling meat chop- per attachments during his senior year of high school. Then he decided he wanted to sell and approached the vice presi- dent of the company about making the shift. "He said come in tomorrow with a jacket and tie, and I did. He gave me the keys to a van, a catalog and some samples to show," says Fusari. "Then, he gave me a list of 10 names and said go call on them, and they were on the Bowery." On the surface, there's no hard-nosed edge or Teflon veneer but Fusari, a chief among encouragers at Myers, is as thick- skinned as they come—one of many intangibles that he attri- butes to years of schlepping on the Bowery. A mere mention of the name conjures up a myriad of good times, grit, grinding and a sincere appreciation for the hard times. "In those days, and even now, there is no place like it in the United States," says Fusari, who spent many a summer there throughout his college years. "The Bowery was the restaurant equipment Mecca of the country and there were dozens of dealers in a one-mile stretch…Bari Restaurant Equipment, Daroma, King Glassware, Paragon, Sam Tell and Sons… So you can imagine how challenging it was for them, and you can imagine how challenging it was for anyone trying to sell for them." The very first dealer Fusari called on greeted him with a sometimes life rhymes? you that fits together so well that the story is so tight no But the truth is, our lives stories ready to knock a we can listen well enough Consultant Karin Hurt on Really Listen." 1992 VP of Sales and Dura-Ware. 1996 Leaves New York for California to start a rep firm. 2000 Transitioned to the dealer side and joined Economy Restaurant Fixtures management team after father-in-law, Chuck Rothkopf, retired. 2011 Forms partnership with Rob Myers for new business Myers Restaurant Supply, LLC. continued on page 20