CHAIRMAN EMERITUS SPOTLIGHT: Steve Lewis Steve Lewis

How did you first get involved with the BURGER KING® brand?

I started as an hourly employee at BURGER KING No. 210 in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. It was owned by a BK® franchisee. That was when I was a junior in high school in March 1966. I worked there until I joined the Navy in November of 1967. When I returned in 1971, I joined the management ranks at BURGER KING Corp. (BKC) in Minneapolis. From manager trainee, I worked my way up to store supervisor, company district manager, franchise district manager, regional manager, regional vice president … my career with BK took me from Minneapolis to Cleveland, New Orleans and Philadelphia, all in a matter of 12 years. In 1983, I began working for a franchisee whose restaurants I later bought in 1985. From 1971 to 1983, I worked for BKC. It wasn’t until ’83 that I began working on the franchisee side.

Do you still have involvement with the brand?

I sold my business in September of 2020. I did, however, retain the real estate. I’m a landlord now!

How did you hear about the National Franchisee Association (NFA)?

As a franchisee, I heard about the association when it was forming. I eventually joined my local association, the Mid-Atlantic Franchisee Association (MATFA). I eventually became the vice president of MATFA in the late 1980s. I was then asked to chair the Marketing Advisory Committee (MAC) in the early 90s. That was how I really got involved with the association at the national level.

Why did you decide to join the association?

It was obvious to me that the NFA would be the body to advocate for the franchisees. I believed strongly in that process. I thought that the more franchisees bought in to the NFA, the larger our voice would be, and we could more effectively work with BKC.

What was your path to becoming chair?

After I served as MAC chair from ’92-’95, I became the vice chair in 1996. After my term as vice chair, I became the chair in 1998.

Did any significant events happen during your term?

Chair terms are normally two years, but my term was extended an extra year because we were in the middle of Project Champion, which was spearheaded by the NFA, and was the initiative for Diageo to sell BURGER KING to a group of investors. The board asked me to stick around in my position to get that task completed, which we did.

I was also chair when we negotiated a new soft drink agreement with The Coca-Cola Co. in 1999-2000. It strengthened our bond with Coke, but it was a boondoggle for our franchisees in the long run.

Another accomplishment was my work with the BURGER KING McLamore Foundation. That was a huge part of my satisfaction. I felt giving back was a part of our overall responsibility as a brand. With the foundation, we were certainly able to do that.

What made you decide to pursue a second term as chair?

The reason that I jumped back into that position was because a number of franchisees thought that my leadership could move us along with BKC. I didn’t necessarily want to do it, but I still had the energy and passion to assume the chair position. While a number of things happened during my administration, there were also many challenges.

During my second stint that started in 2015, the biggest obstacle was convincing the franchisor that the franchise community is an asset in growing the brand. At that time, there was a lot of division within the franchisee ranks, and we had to work very hard to speak with one voice. We were able to accomplish reestablishing the NFA and the strength of the NFA as a body.

After we restrengthened the NFA as a body, I remember my first meeting with Alex Macedo at BKC. I advised him the brand needed to close approximately 1,200 restaurants. While this was met with disdain, it continues to be true today. While we did work out a store closing policy, it was not significant enough to do what really needed to be done.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the resolution of the FreeStyle soft drink issue. Mission accomplished on that as well.

How did the NFA change your career?

The NFA helped me and my business be as successful as we were. The leadership component at BKC has always had continual turnover, so that’s why the NFA is so important. It brings the continuity of leadership for franchisees. While NFA leaders may be different in their approaches, they are there to maintain certain brand standards that need to be sustained for the brand to be successful.

It's a challenging job because franchisees have very strong opinions, and leaders of the NFA have strong opinions as well. Sometimes those collide. As a leader of the franchise community, I feel that it’s not about what the chair thinks. It’s about what the brand needs. There will be times when a decision may help the chair, but it wouldn’t help the whole membership body.

For the NFA chair to be effective, they have to always maintain the greater good of the system, not the greater good of their own individual organization or pocketbooks. It’s about the brand — it’s about the whole body. I believe that was always my strength.

I need to say that this was not a one-man show. We could have never been as successful as we were without the administration (secretary, treasurer, other key board members) that I was working alongside during my terms. Julian Josephson was my vice chair in my first term and Jim Froio during my second term, and they were instrumental for me in having them by my side during some very difficult negotiations and discussions.

What is your favorite memory of being a part of the NFA?

There’s two or three things, actually. From an accomplishment perspective, I believe that Project Champion was my administration’s greatest accomplishment.

On the other hand, as I relate back to Project Champion, we probably could have done the acquisition on our own. At the time, I felt it would have been too difficult for our franchisees to come together in terms of also having the responsibility of managing the brand. In retrospect, I wish we would have because I think the brand would be better off today.

In terms of the other part of that question, it’s the people that are my favorite memory. It’s working with the franchise community, the challenges that presents and the accomplishments along the way that have helped all of us. That’s what really motivated me.

I continue to love this brand. BURGER KING gave me everything that I have today. From the time I started as an hourly employee in 1966, I fell in love with the brand — the operations, the people, the responsibility it gave me over the years. As my career developed, I did a number of things that if someone had told me years before I would do, I would’ve said there’s no way! The work has given me so much gratification.

To this day, I still keep up with what’s going on in the brand, and I still have a number of friends who are franchisees, vendors and suppliers. I just absolutely pull for these guys all the time, and I hope that one of these days, BURGER KING will become the success that I know it can be. n