A recognized figure in the restaurant industry, Blum is known as a visionary, an innovator, a turnaround artist and a business-building brand leader.

Throughout his career, Blum and his teams built billions of dollars in incremental sales, created new good-paying jobs for tens of thousands of hard-working people and made millions in profit year after year for shareholders.

In 1978, Blum started his career in the food business working at General Mills and living in Minneapolis. Among his many accomplishments, he invented Cinnamon Toast Crunch in 1982 and successfully introduced it to the American public. In 1984, he brought the first female athlete (Mary Lou Retton) and in 1986, the first African American athlete (Walter Payton) to the front package of Wheaties – The Breakfast of Champions.

In 1990, he embarked on a fascinating international experience as a key executive on the original start-up team of a new enterprise called Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW), a 50/50 joint venture between General Mills and Nestlé, the largest food company in the world. Blum lived in Switzerland and worked throughout western Europe to help the newly-formed company create a successful multi-billion dollar business in the cereal industry.

In 1994, Blum returned to the U.S. (Orlando) to enter the restaurant industry. He had been asked by the chairman & CEO of General Mills to join its restaurant division and serve as president of Olive Garden, in essence, to save the $1 billion company from going out of business. It was experiencing double-digit declines in same-restaurant sales and losing money.

Serving as the chief executive of Olive Garden for eight years, he led the greatest turnaround in casual dining history. Blum created an exceptional culture, consistent operations and a strong brand by bringing higher quality food and wine to the “new” Olive Garden as well as more Italian authenticity by establishing key partnerships throughout Italy.

The company achieved 33 consecutive quarters of same-restaurant sales increases during his tenure, with the streak behind his vision continuing well after he left, totaling 57 consecutive quarters of growth. Olive Garden became the flagship brand, and an extremely profitable one at that, for Darden Restaurants, the largest casual dining restaurant company in the world. Darden’s stock price increased over six-fold during Blum’s tenure with the company. Blum won Nation’s Restaurant News MUFSO Operator of the Year in 2000 from peers as the industry’s best executive. He also served on the Darden board of directors and was later named Vice Chairman of the parent company. Olive Garden grew into a $4 billion enterprise.

In 2002, Blum was recruited to become Global CEO of Burger King, an $11 billion enterprise, where he again overcame great odds to quickly lead another noteworthy turnaround. His bold actions avoided many franchisees from going bankrupt. He put in place a new brand strategy and his teams significantly improved the company’s performance. Profits doubled during his first year on the job. Same-restaurant sales turned around significantly to grow again after years of decline. The company, that had been purchased by private equity owners, experienced a more than five-times return-on-investment as the company went public in less than four years.

After that experience, Blum had an epiphany. His health and well-being had suffered from the high stress of “fighting in the fast food wars” and doing so in a high profile way. He also had some strategic differences with the private equity owners as well as different values.

He “returned to his spiritual  roots”. A product of the American Midwest, Blum grew up in a small town outside Cincinnati named Terrace Park. There he learned the values that have informed his professional life – love for the land, a belief in personal integrity, a respect for simple, fresh food and for people as “good citizens”.

Blum came up with his purpose to provide Good Food for the Planet. He defined it with five principles. Food that is 1) exceptionally good tasting; 2) remarkably good for you; 3) you feel good after eating; 4) a good everyday value; 5) good for the environment.

In 2005, he established BLUM Enterprises. His first assignments were as a high-level consultant. He was asked to work closely with the founder and CEO of Ruby Tuesday and later with the founders of Outback Steakhouse to help improve their brands and businesses.

In 2008, as owner and operator, he opened a new restaurant in New York City called Dogmatic. It was a new type of “fast food” restaurant committed to using only sustainable ingredients to make artisan products that met the Good Food for the Planet principles.

Later in 2008, Blum also became CEO and part-owner of Romano’s Macaroni Grill. It was another large company in desperate need of a turnaround with double-digit declines in sales that had been deteriorating for over six years. His innovative menu transformation achieved all of the five principles of providing Good Food for the Planet. The new Italian Mediterranean menu contributed brilliantly to growing sales and the team also innovated by reducing costs even though higher quality ingredients and better cooking methods were used. His “Quality up. Cost down.” strategy not only made these new foods fresher and better tasting, the overall menu also had a 49% reduction in calories, 59% reduction in fat and 46% reduction in sodium.

Blum was named Menu Masters Innovator of the Year in the restaurant industry in 2010. His restaurant teams fully embraced everything being done and guest satisfaction soared. David Zinczenko, editor of Men’s Health magazine and author of the book “Eat this, Not That” featured these accomplishments multiple times on the NBC Today Show. Blum was also asked to visit Washington D.C. to meet personally with Sam Kass, the food policy advisor to the Obama administration, who exclaimed how progressive this was in the restaurant industry.

Blum later had experiences serving on a variety of boards of directors.

In 2011, he became executive chairman and the majority shareholder of a new company established in Minneapolis named Boundary Waters Brands. The founders created, and the team introduced, a new brand named JOIA, a line of custom-crafted sparkling drinks. It was sold to Johnson Brothers in 2019, a major distributor, to continue the brand’s growth.

In 2012, Blum became a board director of LEON Naturally Fast Food, a company headquartered in London that follows all five principles of providing Good Food for the Planet. Blum worked closely with the co-founder and CEO as the company increased from six locations to more than eighty restaurants. The company was sold to Euro Garage in 2021, with plans for major expansion in the UK and throughout Europe.

In 2013, he was asked to join the board of directors at AmRest, a restaurant company headquartered in Wroclaw, Poland doing business in Central Europe, Spain & France and China. His assignment concluded in 2015 after the stock price had more than doubled.

In 2014, Blum was asked by several large Darden shareholders and the CEO of a hedge fund, Starboard Value, if he would return to help turn around the company. He served on an all-new board of directors and provided numerous strategic insights for the company’s various brands. Darden’s performance turned around under the leadership of a new CEO. The stock price more than doubled during Blum’s tenure on the board before he stepped down in 2018.

In 2018, Blum founded FoodFirst Global Restaurants, Inc. He orchestrated the acquisition of Brio and Bravo restaurants and opened a new headquarters in Orlando. He was a significant owner and served as chairman & CEO. The company was established with a new mission, vision and values as a platform to bring to the public Good Food for the Planet restaurant brands.

After over five years of sales declines at Brio and Bravo, this was not only a start-up of a new company (FoodFirst), but it also required the turnaround of these two brands as the initial part of Blum’s strategy. There were more than the usual trials and tribulations. Even though performance had begun to improve, the company changed hands quickly, in part also because of the COVID epidemic. The convergence of these events was a major disappointment.

Blum is now a philanthropic food entrepreneur bringing the principles of providing Good Food for the Planet to faculty and students at universities as well as to more food companies. He also has ideas for a new restaurant concept(s) of his own to open in the future.

In 1976, Blum received a Bachelor of Arts from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He majored in Economics. He was also the first student at Denison to have a major in Urban Studies. Blum was instrumental in establishing this new major based on his avid interest in the subject matter and by working with the faculty and administration after completing an internship working closely with the City Manager of Cincinnati.

In 1978, he received his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Evanston, Illinois. Blum majored in Brand Management (Marketing) as well as Finance before electing to enter the private sector to start his career in the food business.