Experience earned inside the operation, not from the sidelines.

For more than three decades, Travis Young has built a career leading complex organizations through growth, operational transformation, and strategic change. His executive leadership experience spans virtually every segment of the hospitality and foodservice industry, including hotels and resorts, restaurants, higher education, K–12 education, healthcare, senior living, corporate dining, sports and entertainment, procurement, and multi-site operations.

Throughout his career, Travis has led organizations responsible for billions of dollars in annual revenue, thousands of team members, and operations serving millions of guests each year. He has successfully guided businesses through periods of rapid growth, operational improvement, cultural transformation, contract negotiations, supply chain optimization, and organizational restructuring, earning a reputation for building high-performing teams and delivering measurable financial results.

What distinguishes Travis is that his perspective extends beyond the executive suite. Throughout his career, he has also built businesses, launched new ventures, developed brands, created strategic partnerships, and worked alongside entrepreneurs who understand the challenges of growing an organization from the ground up. He appreciates that building a successful company requires more than vision—it demands disciplined execution, thoughtful leadership, financial stewardship, and the ability to adapt as opportunities and challenges evolve.

As the Founder and Managing Partner of Catalyst, Travis brings together decades of executive leadership experience with an entrepreneurial mindset and a practical, results-oriented approach to helping organizations improve profitability, strengthen leadership, and increase enterprise value. Whether advising an emerging company preparing for its next stage of growth or a mature organization navigating transformation, his focus remains the same: building stronger organizations through disciplined execution and sustainable business practices.

This philosophy became the foundation for Catalyst, an executive advisory and business transformation firm that partners with founders, CEOs, executive leadership teams, boards of directors, family-owned businesses, private equity firms, investors, and owners to solve complex business challenges and create lasting organizational value. Rather than delivering theoretical recommendations, Catalyst works alongside clients to build the leadership systems, operational disciplines, and management practices that produce measurable business outcomes.

Over the course of his career, Travis has successfully led large-scale operational teams, negotiated strategic supplier partnerships, developed growth initiatives, strengthened organizational cultures, and implemented business strategies that have improved profitability while enhancing the customer and employee experience. His ability to combine executive leadership with entrepreneurial thinking enables him to quickly identify opportunities, align leadership teams, and execute strategies that create meaningful and sustainable results.

Today, Travis advises organizations seeking to accelerate growth, optimize operations, reduce costs, strengthen leadership, and build businesses positioned for long-term success. Whether partnering with an entrepreneurial startup, a family-owned business, a national hospitality company, an educational institution, a healthcare organization, or an investment group, his commitment is unchanged: helping leaders build remarkable organizations through disciplined Patterns of Management.