Member Spotlight

Spartanburg BPW Member

R.S. Hospitality, LLC. dba McDonalds, Owner/Operator Franchisee

Contact Information:

Phone: 609-638-7948

Email: switi.thakkar@partners.mcd.com

What do you and your business do?

Currently I am an entrepreneur in hospitality industry. I own and operate our 4 McDonald’s restaurants in Spartanburg. I work as People Experience Lead for our Organization and Business Unit of McDonald’s to increase our customer satisfaction, and improve employee satisfaction and engagement. Our goal is to create a “culture of care” within all our restaurants and in turn our community.

If applicable, what products and/or services does your business offer and do you have any specials or promotions tp share?

Contributing to our community is our core value and to that we participate in following community events i.e., School Football games (offering discounts for teams and coaches, selling event tickets, etc.) sponsoring a soccer team ( sponsored uniforms for the local team), contributing and volunteering to our soup kitchen (provided thousands of  meals), participating in Food donation programs (program that supports our local group home and soup kitchen), Starting community events like Teacher’s night at McDonald’s (for Lone Oak Elementary school - donated 20% of the revenue during the event and hired a magician to entertain children, hosted pumpkin painting festival for all children in the neighborhoods, back to school event with free elementary school supplies to students), Coffee with Cop on a monthly rotation (an event where community can interact with police officers), Partnering in a Work program for SC School of Deaf and Blind (Partnered with school to provide employment skills for students) Participate and Contribute on ongoing basis to Ronald McDonald House of Charity and breakfasts for volunteers at BMW Golf Charity event. Board member of Spartanburg Philharmonic – arts organization whose mission is to enrich, inspire and educate through a live performance of high quality music. Member of United Artists of the upstate –a group of Professional and amateur artists that exhibit their art around the upstate to connect the communities through fine arts. Member of a nonprofit in India called Women in Network, we serve hundreds of children with their education needs.

Career History:

I have had an opportunity to work in both public and private sectors as a Project Manager for 20+ years to develop, create and manage innovative solutions -- few of them by far stand out:

Managed Payor Compliance project at NYS-Worker’s Compensation Board and we went from insurance companies settling claims from 31% to 91% and reduced the time to settle claims to less than 30 days. That was an amazing feeling to automate processes that helped our injured New Yorkers.

Managed Migration project from legacy FileNet to P8 by migrating over 750+ million images without losing a single image by implementing rigorous checks and balances in house while working with 3rd party vendors and several internal agencies.

Managed Utility Events Dashboard Developing PSC compliant dashboard for Department of Public Service by Integrating Esri –GIS Mapping and Spatial information with Tableau (Data Analytics) and multiple weather platforms to provide a real-time information to New Yorkers and Utility Companies about current outages and providing insight to DPS and Utility Company’s staff for the upcoming weather conditions to staff the upcoming weather events efficiently.

Few of my favorite projects briefly depicted above and its impact on the society rekindled my love of Service. A student at heart I continue to explore and learn new things – I dabble in Fine Arts – oil painting for last 20+ years. I like to travel and explore new areas, understand new cultures and enjoy new cuisines.

How long have you been a BPW member?

I have been involved with BPW since 2020/2021 and a member for four years.

What is a fun, surprising, or unique fact about you? 

A curious person at heart I continue to study and explore new interests. Few of my favorite projects briefly depicted above and its impact on the society rekindled my love of Service so I volunteer and serve our local communities.

I dabble in Fine Arts – oil painting for last 20+ years.  I am playing with pastels and watercolor for last 2 years. Participating in local exhibitions and volunteering to bring the exhibitions at our local venues.

I am learning and playing golf and I’m a Member of Carolina Country Club of Ladies Golf Association.

I like to travel and explore new areas, understand new cultures and enjoy new cuisines.