Alumni Profile: Joy Wallace ‘81

Joy Wallace ‘81

When Joy Wallace '81 started A Joy Wallace Catering Production & Design Team in the fall of 1988, she and her chef were the company's only full-time employees. Together they worked from her home and shuttled their creations in a used truck (or in rented trucks, if needed).

Fast forward 18 years: Today the full-service catering company is a multi-million-dollar-a-year business with more than 40 full-time and nearly 400 part-time employees. It occupies two 11,000-square-foot warehouses in Miami and has a variety of vehicles, including nine refrigerated trucks.

My, how times have changed.On a busy week, Wallace and her team have been known to cater one to two events per day, anything from corporate or private themed parties to luncheons and weddings. The company's goal is simply to meet and exceed your expectations.

“If you looked in the Yellow Pages under caterers, you'd be amazed at how many listings you'd find,” she said, speaking of the competitive industry. “But there's only a handful that are really top-notch.”

Every menu and event is designed with the client's wishes in mind. Wallace's company, which she started with her husband Richard, handles all of the details, including entertainment, food, floral design, lighting photography, tenting and more.

“I'm in catering…and event planning…and décor…and designing…and [having] fun,” Wallace said. “I have created a business that's really amazing and that I have fun doing. I have the best, hard-working people, just the most wonderful staff that is like family, too.”

Wallace credits her success, in part, to being practical and to enjoying her time in FIU's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. She said that the business and accounting courses she took while at FIU prepared her for life in the business world as well as at home.
  

‘This is so cool'

At first, Wallace didn't even know that she wanted to go into catering. She arrived at that conclusion thanks to academic advisor Steve Moll.

“He told me what to do, which was to take all of his courses,” Wallace said with a laugh. “I didn't know that you could get a degree in something that was so much fun, like hospitality. I never even knew that there was such a thing; I just threw parties at my house.

“I was working one day and found all these classes in the handbook, classes that were all about…fun,” remembered Wallace. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is so cool.' Everything I saw was something that I would like to do, so I went for it.”

The decision to go back to school was an easy one – her two daughters were grown and her husband encouraged her – and is one that she wholeheartedly recommends and encourages among her staff.

“[Getting your degree] is so personally rewarding,” Wallace said. “Without it I don't know how anyone can do well in business.”
  

Giving back

Wallace has enjoyed tremendous professional success, which is something she likes to share with her alma mater (she has catered events for FIU) and with her community.

Last summer, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Wallace and her team readied a convoy and went to affected areas in Mississippi and Texas , serving an average of 4,500 hot meals a day for 90 days. Calling it an "extremely rewarding experience," Wallace said she was just glad she was in a position to be able to help out.

A wife and mother, successful businesswoman and philanthropist, it would easy – perhaps too easy – to say that Wallace is having her cake and eating it, too.

The truth is, she is.

--Martin Haro

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