As a youngster, Tim Benolken thought he wanted to be an engineer like his father, Donald, a mechanical engineer and vice president at Shell Oil.
“I loved tinkering with things,” he said. “I bought a ’67 Fiat and built it, worked on mini-bikes and helped an auto racing team owned by a friend’s dad.”
While an undergraduate mechanical engineering student at Rutgers University, Benolken needed extra cash and took a part-time job as a waiter at a local restaurant.
“I was immediately attracted to the pace and the energy level involved in food preparation,” said Benolken, who was promoted to line cook. “That’s when I realized I didn’t want to sit behind the desk as an engineer. I wanted to get into the hospitality industry.”
So he left Rutgers in 1977 and applied to the University of Denver’s restaurant and hotel management program, where he was wait-listed.
“Because I’d been in engineering, my grades were far from stellar,” Benolken said. “So I went to a community college for a year and boosted my grade point up to 3.0.”
Accepted into Denver’s program, where he took 16-18 credits a semester, he worked at Stouffer’s 55-60 hours weekly as a cook’s helper, sous chef and housekeeping director.
“They were crazy hours, but I had to do it,” Benolken said. “I couldn’t afford school without work.
“That’s when I realized that I wanted to run a hotel. In hotel school, I recognized I had an affinity for the business. But at Stouffer’s, as I was able to be involved in finance, development, sales and marketing, I knew I’d always be happy.”
Today, Benolken, 49, is Hilton Hotels Corp. area operations vice president, responsible for all corporately managed Hilton, Conrad and Doubletree Hotels in Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and Missouri.
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Q. At what point in your working life did what you’re doing now become your goal?
A. Very early. When I was 21 I had a crystallized vision of what I wanted to do. I knew hotels and hospitality was going to be my career. I’ve been very fortunate to enjoy every minute of it.
Q. Did anyone mentor you?
A. When I was in college, I worked at Chanticlear, an upscale restaurant, for a German chef, Rolf Gabele. He was the kind of guy who, if you showed interest, would give you opportunities. You watched and got involved. I was running parties for up to 1,000 people off-site.
Art Mangual, a Stouffer’s regional vice president, interviewed and hired me in Denver. He was the person who moved me into management, housekeeping and director of food and beverages. He gave me a lot of breaks.
Q. After you left Stouffer’s, you went to Bennigan’s, but left two years later. Why?
A. When I met the Bennigan’s owners, they had only a few restaurants. They were doing something unique and creative. I was impressed with their concept and decided to join them.
They were opening restaurants at an incredible pace. So that the company could become profitable quicker, they wanted to reduce the preopening to 12 days from six weeks (the industry average). It didn’t work.
I was given a choice: Do it or get fired. I chose to get fired.
Q. In retrospect, was going to Bennigan’s a good move or a bad move?
A. I thought I was going to a restaurant-oriented entrepreneur, but it became just another division of a big company with more bureaucracy.
If things had gone well, it would have been worse. I would have ended up doing what I went there to get away from doing, which was getting away from bureaucracy.
In retrospect, it was good to see things don’t always work the way you think they should. You have to persevere.
Q. What previous job best prepared you for what you’re doing now?
A. When I was vice president and general manager of the Star Plaza in Merrillville, there were very few rules. I had to learn on the fly.
Q. How did your personal life fare while you moved up the ladder?
A. I met my wife, Janice, when I was at Rutgers and she was at Seton Hall. We married in 1980.
She’s a true partner. She’s worked in hotels herself; for example, in accounting at Stouffer’s. She’s got great instincts. When she’s walking through hotels, she’s not afraid to tell me what she thinks. And she doesn’t get bored when I talk about business at home.
We have three children: Nichole, 25, director of operations for Oxford Lodging; Daniel, 23, who works for DRW Holdings, a commodities trader; and Sean, 17, a senior at Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake.
Q. If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything differently?
A. No. I could have probably accelerated my career in some ways if I’d changed who I was, but I didn’t want to do that. It’s easy to be more superficial than to stay true to who you are and stay true to the way you think things should be done.
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Step by step
1997-present: Area vice president of operations, Hilton Hotels Corp., Chicago
1990-97: General manager, Promus Hotel Corp., Baltimore and Chicago
1987-90: Vice president and general manager, Star Plaza Theatre and Resort, Merrillville
1983-86: General manager, S&A Restaurant Corp., Denver and Dallas
1980: Bachelor’s degree, hotel and restaurant management, University of Denver
1983: Director of food and beverages, Stouffer’s Denver Inn
1982: Director of housekeeping, Stouffer’s Denver Inn
1981: Chef, Stouffer’s Denver Inn
1980: Sous chef, Stouffer’s Denver Inn
1979: Cook’s helper, Stouffer’s Denver Inn
1975-77: Mechanical engineering student, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
1973-79: Busboy, waiter, bartender and cook, Chanticlear Chateau, Warren, N.J.
1971-73: Dishwasher/prep cook, Warrenbrook Country Club, Warren, N.J.
