James Walter Melvin is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

, and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

who founded and served as the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of several notable software companies in the

foodservice The foodservice (US English) or catering (British English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many ...

and

hospitality Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de J ...

industries. His software products have been installed at more than 125,000 stores worldwide for companies such as

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

YUM! Brands Yum! Brands, Inc. (or Yum!), formerly Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., is an American fast food corporation listed on the Fortune 1000. Yum! operates the brands KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill, except in China, where the br ...

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

Wendy's Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (1932–2002) on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was the ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Darden Restaurants Darden Restaurants, Inc. is an American multi-brand restaurant operator headquartered in Orlando. As of January 2022, the firm owns two fine dining restaurant chains: Eddie V's and The Capital Grille; and six casual dining restaurant chains: O ...

K-Mart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inco ...

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

Foot Locker Foot Locker Retail, Inc. is an Americans, American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in 28 countries. Although established in 1974, and founded as a separate company in ...

and many others.

Early life

Melvin was an early fan of

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

. At 15 years old, Melvin met

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

at a fan convention, where the two discussed an idea for automating the role of the Dungeon Master. At the urging of Gygax, Melvin created GameAssist using Z80 assembly on

TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...

computers. GameAssist was a tool to assist Dungeon Masters in the Dungeons & Dragons game with tracking player statistics and inventory and in managing and generating creature encounters. Melvin sold the

Intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

behind GameAssist in 1980 to a gaming supplies store after he left to attend college at

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

Introduction to the foodservice industry

Melvin's career of creating technology solutions for the foodservice industry began when he was 18 years old, when he was hired by a

franchisee to develop software for the franchisee's Wendy's stores. This software was later adopted by Wendy's corporate. In 1986, Melvin co-founded Techwerks. Techwerks became one of the largest global resellers of NCR retail hardware. While at Techwerks, Melvin developed touchscreen

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

software called "Foodwerks" for

fast food restaurants A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically ...

. Foodwerks was sold in April 1989 for almost $2 million to an investor group led by Melvin. IBM 4695

Compris Technologies

With support from

Dave Thomas Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital ...

, and financial backing from IBM, Melvin founded Compris Technologies in late 1989. The primary product offered by Compris Technologies was a point of sale (POS) software application. IBM, in a partnership with Compris Technologies, created the first commercial IBM touchscreen POS units, IBM kiosk POS units and IBM handheld POS units. As a result, the Compris POS software application was first mainly installed on IBM 46xx Series hardware, but later supported by several other POS hardware manufacturers including NCR. Between 1989 and 1992, Compris quickly grew to become the dominant global provider of foodservice technology. The Compris POS software continued to increase in popularity throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, winning several

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

Retail Application Developer (RAD) Awards.

Apigent Solutions

In 2000, Melvin founded Apigent Solutions. Other technology companies, such as Par Technology Corporation, partnered with Apigent Solutions to provide comprehensive technology offerings to foodservice chains within the quick service (QSR) segment. At the time, Apigent Solutions was the only

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

SunTone Certified data center in the foodservice industry. In 2002, Apigent Solutions was sold to eMac Digital, a joint venture backed by

and

KKR KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strateg ...

SIVA Corporation

On January 1, 2003, Melvin acquired SIVA Corporation, a provider of cloud-based POS software, from a private investor group. Melvin shut down the business for a year following the acquisition to rearchitect the underlying technology as an enterprise-focused system. Upon completion of the reengineering effort,

became iSIVA's first customer in 2003. Over the next four years, the iSIVA product grew in popularity and was adopted by

Luby's Luby's, Inc. (formerly Luby's Cafeterias, Inc.) is a parent company that operates the Luby's chain of cafeteria-style restaurants. In the past, Luby's Inc. also owned the Fuddruckers, Koo Koo Roo, and Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chains. ...

Fuddruckers Fuddruckers (sometimes abbreviated Fudds) is an American fast casual, franchised restaurant chain that specializes in hamburgers. The Fuddruckers concept is to offer large hamburgers in which the meat is ground on-site and buns are baked on the ...

Legal Sea Foods Legal Sea Foods is an American restaurant chain of casual-dining seafood restaurants mostly located in the Northeastern region of the United States. The current company headquarters is located in the South Boston Seaport District and as of 2022, ...

CoCo's ''Coco's Bakery'' is a subsidiary chain of Shari's Cafe & Pies and casual dining restaurants operating in the western United States. , the chain operates 16 restaurants in Arizona and California. It began as The Snack Shop in 1948 in Corona del ...

Carrows Carrows was a subsidiary of Shari's Cafe & Pies and casual dining restaurant that served breakfast and lunch/dinner in California, United States. As of June 2023, the company operated 1 location in Cerritos, California. Carrows was started by Da ...

, Miller's Alehouse and many others.

Other ventures

Following his tenure at Par Technology Corporation, Melvin served as an advisor and investor for several technology start-ups in the foodservice space. In 2014, Melvin joined the board of advisors for the House of Genius, a

Startup accelerator Startup accelerators, also known as seed accelerators, are fixed-term, cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components and culminate in a public pitch event or demo day. While traditional business incubators are often g ...

. Melvin currently occupies the role of CEO for Intelligent Transactions, a strategic technology consultancy for the foodservice industry.

Philanthropy

In 1998, in a partnership with the

National Restaurant Association The National Restaurant Association is a restaurant industry business association in the United States, representing more than 380,000 restaurant locations. It also operates the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. The associ ...

, Melvin co-founded the technology pavilion for the association's annual trade show in Chicago to help promote innovation within the foodservice industry. Melvin's other philanthropic endeavors included serving on the FDA's Food Safety Technology Advisory Panel and participating as an advisory board member for Round It Up America. In 2013, Melvin co-founded the Food Service Educational Alliance, a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

dedicated to investigating and advancing educational opportunities for workers in the foodservice industry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melvin, Jim Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Businesspeople from Oakland, California American food company founders American founders American philanthropists