Ryan Santwire is a born and raised Northwest product, growing up in the greater Seattle area. He truly loves the Seattle
As a kid, he started out by working paper routes, painting houses, mowing lawns and doing whatever it took to make a dollar as a young teen. One of his first full-time jobs, was a busboy in a restaurant, then moving up to waiter and continuing in the restaurant business through his college years. He was only 19and still in college, when he worked his way into a union job only 30-somethings got into and was the youngest person in the company by 12 years. From there he leveraged the funds he made to start a liquidation business, an advertising company, a deal company similar to Groupon and many other companies.
Over the last 20 years, he has been a consultant for corporate and enterprise customers, helping them maneuver through their technology needs and platforms. He has been involved in billions of dollars in sales, closing some of the biggest deals in the world for Verizon (a Fortune 20 company) with firms like Amazon, Microsoft, Costco, Nordstrom, Getty Images, Weyerhaeuser, Expedia, etc. He has extensive experience driving sales on a global level with Managed Services, Data Center builds, Application Management, Application Performance, Cloud Services, IT integration, IT Security, ERP, Professional Services and Enterprise IT delivery.
He has been in senior management positions and loves to roll up his sleeves and work to contribute to whatever aspect that will drive a company and the business forward. His motto in business and life is, “you do whatever it takes to make it work” and believes that we all need to dig in where needed and that we‘re all in this together.
Ryan is also the president of a Seattle restaurant icon, Paseo. They have three locations today, with a new Tiki Lounge concept they‘ve launched, as well as a new location inside T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners. This is a place Yelp has rated as the #3 restaurant in the country. Anthony Bourdain has visited on several occasions and called Paseo out as a top place to eat in the Seattle area. Esquire called it out as having the best sandwich in America, with TLC‘s Food Network saying it had the 2nd best sandwich in America. People from all over the world have contacted Ryan about investment and franchise opportunities with Paseo and he is now finally ready to make that a reality.
He has been involved in energy businesses, technology companies, wine businesses, several restaurant businesses and many other businesses tied to the hospitality business. He has really been able to tap into those past experiences to better how he works with his opportunities today. He has truly worked from next to nothing, to a vibrant leader that is always looking for new challenges.
As for philanthropy, he is also a board member for the Pike Place Market Foundation and previously the American Cancer Society, raising funds and helping support both causes in the Seattle area. His view is that it is all of our responsibility to help the community grow, have more interaction within, function better overall and to give back wherever we can. He looks at philanthropy as a part of his life and is involved with a variety of additional causes.
Ryan is an avid oenophile, with aspirations of making some of his wine own someday.
If you would like to contact Ryan Santwire, please email him at info@paseorestaurants.com.
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Thom Singer is the host of the entrepreneur podcast, “Cool Things Entrepreneurs Do”. He is also a keynote speaker and professional master of ceremonies / emcee. He is an expert on managing potential and growing your network.