With more than 30 years of executive leadership experience in the hospitality, healthcare and insurance industries, Kevin R. Dunn recently founded Star-Phoenix International, a consulting company sharply focused on assisting clients achieve measurable success across all facets of business operations with a specific focus on the hospitality industry.

In 2025, Kevin left his position as Executive Director of the US Chaine des Rôtisseurs after leading the administration of the gastronomic society for almost nine years. Today he remains deeply involved in all three pillars of the hospitality industry – culinary, wine and service. Through Star-Phoenix International, Kevin and his associates provide clients an unparalleled commitment to excellence to identify and then implement customized, successful strategies across disciplines.

As the Executive Vice President and International Trustee of the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences (AAHS), Kevin daily interacts with industry titans as well as executives and owners of small to large businesses who are vitally important to the success of the hospitality and luxury-based industries. Kevin excels at creating bridges between these groups with a singular goal for all to succeed.

A graduate of LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, and a Master’s Degree candidate at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Kevin began his career in 1993 in the insurance and healthcare industries. Trained initially as an actuary/health underwriter, Kevin became Vice President of Summit Health Administrators in 1997, one of the largest Third-Party Administrators on the Eastern Seaboard for health and hospital administration at the time.

In 1999, Kevin was promoted to Executive Vice President of Summit and became the Executive Vice President of TBGUSA, a mid-sized regional insurance firm, which he partially founded and grew to over $5,000,000 in agency commissions within three years. By 2006, Kevin began a new venture called Cross-Summit Enterprises where he was part of a team that built the first hybrid major medical program in the United States which grew to over $200,000,000 in annualized premium by 2011. 

In 2012, Mr. Dunn left the insurance industry and became CEO of CEO Clubs, Inc., a nationwide CEO think tank and networking group of over 2,000 CEOs from around the world. He has sat on several boards during his career which include the Archdiocese of New York Catholic Charities, Cathedral College Trustee Board and several other Board for nonprofit and profit based organizations as well as each of his own businesses.

In 2016, he was recruited to take over the National Office for the US Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, the world’s largest food and wine society with over 15,000 members worldwide and 4,000 members in the United States as its Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, which he administered along with its two Foundations: The Chaîne Foundation and Académie Brillat-Savarin for nearly nine years. 

In this capacity Mr. Dunn formed lifelong relationships with Chefs, Restaurateurs, Hoteliers, Wineries, Food & Spirit Companies as well as Travel, Luxury and Hospitality related associations & organizations. In addition, he was honored by the American Academy of Chefs, the Foundation arm for the American Culinary Federation as an honorary member for his contributions to the development of young chefs. 

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Michigan. Chris worked for a number of years for a commercial construction company managing large projects, collecting data and labor statistics and performing detailed estimates for bids.

He left commercial construction to lead his family’s business in real estate development, which included operating a skilled nursing facility the company owned. After renovating the facility and turning around that operation, Chris supervised the development and construction of a new skilled nursing facility and assisted living facility that significantly raised the standard for skilled nursing homes in the area. In addition, the project included construction of a new health care campus that included a building for a Family Practice department of the then Medical College of Ohio and a senior center in collaboration of the Area Office of Aging. Chris negotiated land acquisition and joint development agreements with Lucas County, Ohio and the Medical College of Ohio. As technology became integrated into business operations in the late 1980s, Chris developed and successfully implemented custom patient care and accounting software for the skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, the foundation for his future expertise in Information Technology (IT).

Managing two skilled nursing facilities, Chris supervised more than 300 employees and all facets of the business, which included two commercial kitchens. In addition Chris successfully negotiated agreements with municipal and county entities to create and develop Briarfield Business Park in Maumee, Ohio that is home to many industrial, commercial and retail business.

In 1999, Chris left his family business to launch Miller Consulting Services to provide project management and business services. Projects for clients have included preparing several business plans, performing data analysis, and developing custom software platforms for clients within the health insurance industry. In one project, Chris developed, implemented and managed a software platform that administered 15,000 lives for a health insurance client.

In 2014, Chris helped a local nonprofit prepare and present a grant application for a complete renovation of a former school kitchen that resulted in a $1 million award from the state of Ohio to provide meals for kids in day-care, during summer vacations and help feed adults in a local local mission.

In 2019 Chris’ software platform was used as the basis for a custom membership platform for a national non-profit gastronomic organization with approximately 5,000 members in over 10 chapters. Chris was engaged as the IT manager and webmaster with this group for more than six years.

With his wife, Judy, in 2013, Chris co-founded Redwood Educational Technologies to produce and publish original educational content for K-12 students. As a journalist and educator with a Master of Educational Studies in digital media from the University of Michigan, from 1999-2003, Judy produced a student news section within a major broadcast network’s website, creating original content to keep students connected to the world and motivate student engagement in learning. After producing original content for more than 20 years, in 2025, Redwood launched Stories 250 at www.stories250.com, a repository of Judy’s body of work since 2009. Currently Redwood has filmed and produced over 220 videos, mostly documentaries, including some animated instructional videos, all authored by Judy and video edited by Chris.

After three years of research, in 2025, Redwood produced an original 80-minute documentary on the life of Cornelia Fort, the first woman pilot to be killed while on active duty. In July 2026, Crosswinds: The Courageous Life of Cornelia Fort will be shown on July 22 during the EAA AirVenture, the largest air show in North America with more than 650,000 people attending the one-week aviation event.

Skilled in nonprofit organization management, Board operations, sales, and entrepreneurship, Jill’s career has focused on all facets of the hospitality industry. She is currently president of Taste Great Wines, a wine education company. In fall 2023, Jill expanded the business to include not only wine education but also spirits and beer education to the business portfolio, traveling the country to host educational wine tasting events.

She has spent her entire career in the hospitality industry

. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Stout with a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality with a minor in Travel and Tourism, Jill worked in multiple cities before moving to Pittsburgh in 2003, immediately becoming a member of the Pittsburgh Bailliage of the U.S. Chaine des Rotisseurs. In 2004, she founded her own event planning company providing expertise from “soup to nuts” for nonprofit organizations, becoming one of the first event planning companies to offer online ticketing.

Jill has been communications director for ACF Pittsburgh Chapter since 2022, and an active member of the ACF since 2018 going on the ACF Pittsburgh board the same year.

In 2014, she was named Bailli of the Pittsburgh Bailliage while also operating her event planning company. Always committed to nurturing young career professionals, she became an adjunct professor at Westmoreland County Community College and the American Academy of Culinary Arts at Pittsburgh Technical College. She taught courses covering both the front of the house (management) and the back of the house (purchasing and cost control).

With a vivacious personality and years of experience in event planning and the hospitality industry, Jill is a sought-after consultant for companies and organizations that seek to make their events more productive, efficient, and, most of all, profitable.