LESLIE G. RUDD, principal

Leslie Rudd has over thirty years of general business experience: real estate, operation of service companies, and direct investment into growth concepts.

He was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas and he is a graduate of Wichita State University.

In addition to his participation in Zapolski + Rudd he divides his time between various business interests. They currently include his controlling ownership of the following:

• LRIco, a privately held investment company, St. Helena, California

• Dean & Deluca, a retail gourmet food chain with stores in: New York, NY, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, MO, St. Helena, CA, and Charlotte, NC; headquartered in New York.

• Standard Beverage Corporation, the largest wholesale liquor distributorship in the state of Kansas, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas.

• Rudd Estate, a premium winery located in Oakville, Napa Valley, California.

His past experience is also quite varied. He was Founding Partner of Lonestar Steakhouse and Saloon restaurants, a Wichita, KS and Charlotte, NC based steak restaurant chain that was created and grew to a national food service operation. The company went public in the early 1990's and was cited as one of the great success stories of its industry. As a Principal in Godfather's Pizza restaurants, he was instrumental in the growth throughout the United States of a chain of pizza restaurants that were later sold. In addition, he was an Operator/Owner of Pizza Hut restaurants located in the midwest and western portions of the United States.