Executive Transition 2026
Chef-Founder · Operating Executive · COO · General Manager · Managing Director
German-born and U.S.-based, I turn product promise into operational reality for premium food technology, refrigeration, and connected-hardware businesses — bridging customers, engineering, suppliers, and manufacturing across the U.S., Europe, China, and APAC.
Deutsch · Conversational Italian · English · EU Citizen · US Permanent Resident
The Problem on Both Sides of the Table
For Equipment Manufacturers
The telemetry goes unread, and the ROI conversation never reaches the ownership level where capital decisions get made. The machine gets evaluated on sticker price instead of operational impact, and the next sales cycle starts from zero.
For Hotel Ownership & Asset Management
Brand wants standards, ownership wants margin, and the operator sits between them absorbing the disagreement. Whoever earns the trust of all three protects the asset — everything else is administration.
Claus Schmitz has occupied all three of those chairs — ownership, operator, manufacturer — simultaneously, not sequentially.
Career Foundation
1992 – 1994
Daikyo Property Group
Manager of Operations · Australia
Responsible for operational performance across hospitality and property activities, working within Australian and Japanese ownership and management environments.
1994 – 2002
Thakral Holdings Group (THG)
SVP · ASX-Listed · Australia & SEA-Pacific
Joined as Manager, Hotel Operations and progressed to SVP, with owner-side responsibility for approximately $600M in hospitality and commercial assets across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand. Directed approximately A$375M in capital expenditure, spanning acquisitions, capital allocation, asset performance, redevelopment, repositioning, and governance of major international hotel operators.
2002 – 2003
Tourism Group Sydney
Managing General Partner · Sydney, Australia
Independent tourism property consultancy. Largest engagement was strategic branding and property advisory work for Hilton Indonesia. Still registered in Australia today.
2014 – Present
Steak Locker Global
Co-Founder & CEO · San Diego, California
Built the product, category, technology, manufacturing, supply chain, and commercial organization from an initial idea. Steak Locker reached $1M+ in peak annual revenue. Named inventor on U.S. Patent 11,006,657, with proprietary technology developed in the United States across firmware, software, mobile applications, telemetry, electronics, and custom circuit-board architecture.
2003 – 2013
Mosaic Restaurant Group
Managing Director · Seven Outlets · St. Louis, Missouri
Built and operated a seven-outlet hospitality group that reached approximately $7M in peak annual revenue before being sold in 2013. Led concept development, site selection, equipment specification, kitchen design, procurement, team building, commercial performance, and operations.
1983 – 1992
Earlier Career
Europe · Bermuda · Sydney Opera House
Classical culinary apprenticeship in Germany and international hospitality experience in Europe and Bermuda. Food & Beverage Manager at the Sydney Opera House from May 1989 to August 1992, leading high-volume, high-profile hospitality operations, teams, events, and guest experience.
The U.S. / Europe / China / APAC Bridge
Claus speaks German and English fluently, with conversational Italian. He holds EU citizenship and US permanent residency. His culinary formation took place across Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy, and England. He has operated professionally across four continents.
For a sophisticated European manufacturer — Mittelstand or otherwise — growing in North America while sourcing or manufacturing through China and APAC, this profile is structurally useful. Claus can translate among European engineering culture, North American customer expectations, and the day-to-day realities of supplier management, QA, firmware and app coordination, logistics, service, and channel execution.
A German-speaking COO or Managing Director who has built and operated restaurants, progressed to SVP with owner-side responsibility for approximately $600M in hospitality and commercial assets, and built a connected-product business from San Diego is not a profile that appears often in any search. In the specific context of a European premium equipment company expanding into North America, the combination covers an unusually broad range of operating, ownership, product, and market-expansion experience.
Start the Conversation
Whether there is an execution gap, a market opportunity, or a commercial challenge in your organization where this combination of skills creates immediate leverage — that conversation should happen directly.
Full career detail available on request — a conversation should come before a document.
Based in San Diego, California · EU Citizen · US Permanent Resident · Open to Relocation