Refugium Hiring a Chief Financial Officer

About Us

Vinaigrette

We are a chic salad centric bistro with three locations; two in New Mexico – Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and one in

Austin, Texas. The salad centric concept specializes in bold and delicious entrée salads. It’s healthy eating that is easy,

joyful and tastes delicious. Our salads feature innovative flavor combinations and the option to add savory protein

partners like diver scallops, lemon-herb roasted chicken or grilled hanger steak. These hearty and healthy creations

are both delicious and utterly guilt free.

We grow much of our organic produce on our 10 acre farm in Nambe, Los Portales, where owner Erin Wade lives. We

harvest each morning during the growing season and deliver straight to the restaurants. When not grown

on our farm we source the best local, organic, and sustainable ingredients. As one publication proclaimed, “Eating

well never tasted so good.” Our restaurants’ design is contemporary and modern, yet casual and comfortable. Each

space is open, bright and delightful, matching the bright vibrant flavors and colors of the salads.

Modern General Feed & Seed

Modern General Feed & Seed is a craft food emporium and a modern take on the general store, just a stone’s throw

from our sister restaurant Vinaigrette Santa Fe. Building off the mission of Vinaigrette, we wanted to bring health and

delight into more aspects of our customers’ lives and to create a community gathering place that embodied the true

spirit of a general store. The motto “nothing you don’t need” inspires us – food and goods produced naturally that

don’t junk up your life or your body with harmful additives or clutter; only the essential.

Avocado

A soon-to-be-launched sustainable food delivery app that aims to support independent restaurants by more closely

aligning with their quality and values than other large-scale delivery options.

Refugium

Refugium is the umbrella corporation for the restaurants, stores, farms, ranches and community-oriented technology

platforms founded by Erin Wade. It is a collective of farms and ranches, artisans and makers – our farms and ranches

double as special event spaces and tech detox facilities for harried people burned out by modern, always-on life.

With thoughtful design, upcycled materials, and cyclical integration, Refugium aims to find a better, more sustainable

way to produce and distribute food and goods.

 

About the Position

Looking for an experienced, high-level Chief Financial Officer with operational experience in the hospitality industry.

Someone who has scaled small companies from one threshold to the next or is excited by the challenge. In need of a

hands-on, can-do kind of person. Reporting to the CEO, the CFO will be an integral part of the leadership team and a

growth strategy leader. The CFO will play a key role in in strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, and advising.

Key Responsibilities

• Maximize profits at every restaurant. This will involve standardizing reporting, troubleshooting problem

areas, solving those problems, holding General Managers (and/or Director of Ops) accountable.

• Develop finance deals and funding memoranda for new restaurants, locations, and companies (like Avocado).

• Travel to the different locations and help devise an overall growth strategy for the company, along with its

structure and funding.

• Develop/manage detailed budgeting, including forecasting new projects and existing restaurants.

• Advise on construction budgets and loans, lease agreements.

• Strong quantitative orientation to identify key metrics and maintain a quick grasp of the numbers with the

strategic ability to discern trends and identify issues and opportunities for the Company.

• Hiring of GMs, Directors that will report to this position.

• Help enact a people-driven quality control plan that keeps locations excellent and on-brand.

• The CFO will work hand in hand with the Chief Brand Officer and Chief Executive Officer to make sure

company stays cohesive, on-brand and on-value as it grows.

• Manage the ongoing reviews and mentor/mentee program.

• Put sales team in place for new product lines as well as help put numbers to our plans to become vertically

integrated.

• Represent the organization and lead business relations seeking better pricing from vendors, putting in place

contact buys, etc.

• Provide efficient and exceptional service to customers and guests.

• Provide high-end customer service, sophistication, and attention to detail.

 

Qualifications

• Industry Experience – 8+ years in CFO or comparable role experience with specific reference to CFO

responsibilities.

• Experience in Hospitality or Restaurants.

• Real Estate experience- so much of hospitality finance ends up hinging on real estate.

• Sustainability experience – non-profit or volunteer work.

• Experience in Farming/Ranching or Vertical Integration, as well as Product Development/Manufacturing,

Food Technology.

• Ability to solve complex tactical or strategic problems and develop/recommend new alternative tactics and

strategies.

• Excellent communication skills – both written and oral.

Values

• Cares about good, scratch-made food, taste, flavor. Understanding of the struggle of maintaining

independent restaurant quality with greater scale.

• Cares about sustainability/the environment, as well as beauty and good design.

• In person, face-to-face communication rather than virtual/remote.

• Sense of humor or goofiness is nice.

• Supports the staff, makes their jobs better, driving efficiencies and not bogging them down with extra work.

• The ‘Go-Getter’ attitude.

Interested in the position, please email Ben Williams (ben@buffkinbaker.com)