Professional Life
Craig S. Wilson has spent a career in business start-ups, acquisitions, and globalizing commercial and industrial equipment and supplies businesses. Mr. Wilson became the first franchisee of American Recruiters in May 1999, the premier business-to-business executive recruitment organization serving foodservice, food processing, HVAC, white goods industries, high technology, healthcare-related fields, financial and HR markets.
With more than thirty years of hands-on experience, Mr. Wilson was publisher of Global Foodservice and FYI Magazines, the only global publications in foodservice spanning 145 countries worldwide. Prior career highlights include President and Chief Executive Officer of RATIONAL Cooking Systems, Inc.
Mr. Wilson’s prior assignment was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for Middleby, with P&L for three international divisions, seven operations, 240 employees, including a design engineering firm, two fabrication plants, and six sales and service operations.
He has personally conducted business in 67 countries to date and has negotiated joint-ventures and trading agreements in such diverse markets as Canada, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Mr. Wilson also served four years on the Board of Directors of the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers, serving also as the Chairman of NAFEM International. Mr. Wilson recently founded CAD Solutions Group, an engineering design firm that outsources kitchen and construction design to the Far East. He was also President of the Board of Theatre Building Chicago, a non-profit incubator for new theater works in the Chicago area.
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Creative Life
Craig S Wilson is a serial creative, who has written 300 songs, three musicals, and six books. He published Dating for Life in 2013, a book describing the four keys to maintaining successful relationships. He is also the author of Gig, a historical fiction that explores the wonderment of teenage romance during the exploding music scene of the 60’s.
The LUCAS ROCHA Thriller 4-Book Series was inspired by a true story when Craig was sent on a business trip to Brazil. A scraggly street kid tossed dust on his shoe and then asked him in pidgin English if he wanted his shoes shined. Craig humored him, but when the kid was done, he asked for a tip that was twenty times the going rate. Craig haggled until agreeing to give the kid five dollars. As soon as Craig pulled out his money clip, the kid snatched it and ran like the wind. Luckily, Craig was a runner too and chased him into the favelas until the kid threw the money clip into the air and pushed an elderly woman into his path. Craig helped the woman up and was surprised when she scolded him. “Never give money to these street rats. You make the problem worse,” she said. He never forgot that moment. It inspired him to write about the tens of thousands of kids trying to survive on the streets of Rio. Renegade Pawn is the first book in the LUCAS ROCHA Thriller Series. Craig has recently launched a Substack called The Enigma Grid, Science Fiction Short Stories a la Twilight Zone—addictive, mind-bending, and fulfilling.
Craig’s mantra is “live life in crescendo,” and he is passionate about anything that he does. Through his personal journey in finding the love and partner of his life, Melissa G. Wilson, he continues to pursue his dreams of creating beauty in the world and changing people’s lives through his stories.
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