Donna Fitzgerald

Business Performance Optimization
Operation and Training Development

Donna is a business analyst and business unit manager with over 30 years of experience in training and consulting to increase business performance. She began her career in retail business management and moved into the hospitality arena as a business performance consultant for major hospitality chains. Her specialized areas of focus were business process improvement, inventory control solutions, revenue enhancement, integration of operations and back office, customized training, and increasing customer satisfaction.

As a respected hospitality industry performance expert, Donna consulted with a variety of high-profile Atlanta clients, as well as national hospitality accounts:

• Benihana
• Burger King
• Hard Rock Café
• Hooters
• Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Kobe Steakhouse
• Krispy Kreme
• Marriot
• Ruth's Chris
• Sheraton Hotels.

Donna's strengths include an in-depth understanding of business processes and their impact on performance, as well as the ability to metric the true value and impact of customer interactions. She has a strong track record of finding and managing the gaps of existing organizations and driving them to economic stability, greater profitability and very high customer satisfaction--both internal and external.

Most recently, Donna has taken her expertise to Optio Software, which specializes in business process automation. Optio Academy, the firm's training division, was suffering from huge losses, heavy turnover and high customer dissatisfaction.

Within 60 days, Donna was able to make the unit profitable, which has been consistently maintained. Within 15 months, Donna created recognition for the Optio Academy brand as a viable technical education organization, moving from the least profitable to the most profitable business unit within Optio. Profitability went from losses to a 48% profit margin, with the lowest turnover in Optio history.