McCormick and Schmick Chairman Presents WSU HRA Fall Burtenshaw Lecture

PULLMAN, Wash. — Hospitality industry entrepreneur and veteran Bill McCormick,
chairman of McCormick & Schmick Management Group, will present the fall 1999 Burtenshaw
Lecture sponsored by Washington State University’s Hotel & Restaurant Administration
program.
His speech, entitled “Chasing the Rabbit: the Baby Boomer,” is set for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Oct. 20, in WSU’s Todd Hall Auditorium.
McCormick is co-founder of one of the most profitable restaurant concepts in the United States.
His long-time business partner, Doug Schmick, joined McCormick in 1974 and the two founded
Traditional Concepts, a restaurant management organization. To date, they have established 22
restaurants throughout the west and in Washington, D.C.; Denver; Chicago; and other locales.
A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Business’ Executive Management Program
and Boston University, McCormick worked in banking just out of college. He left finance to start
a restaurant. In the early 1970s, he purchased a struggling Jake’s Famous Crawfish restaurant
that had served Portland since the 1890s, and gave it new life. Within a month, lines were waiting
outside its doors. Soon after, he joined forces with Schmick to expand their operations.
He has served as a member of the boards of many organizations, including the National
Restaurant Association, the Oregon Historical Society, the Citizens’ Crime Commission and the
St. Vincent Heart Institute.
The Burtenshaw Distinguished Lecture Series began in 1981 and is sponsored by DeVere
Jerry and Angelina Burtenshaw of Seattle in memory of their son, Calvin Brett. The fall lecture is
presented each year in Pullman, and a spring lecture is held in Seattle.
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