Our Contributors

Maerav Chiprut

Maerav's career spans over 18 years in the Restaurant, Retail & Leisure Industries, with a focus in restaurant/cafe operations and training.

Maerav has managed over 60 restaurant/café openings in the UK & the US.

Maerav is responsible for all The Next Idea training activities, and has consulted with a range of food service operators; including Britney Spears, The Zone, Virgin Trains, Panera Bread, Viva Vegan, Phood Farmacy, Roscoes Chicken and Waffles, and Albert Roux Cafes.

Thelma Weaver

Thelma graduated from City University of New York-Hunter College with a degree in Media Studies and Psychology. Her background includes 12 years of diversified experience in project management, marketing, and promotional programming, in mobile communications, tradeshows and hospitality. Thelma began her career as Brand manager (freelance) for a range of well-known US and international brands, including Stella Artois, DKNY, Lufthansa, Boars Head, Jet Magazine, Snapple, Time Warner Cable, Estee Lauder and T-Mobile. She then became Project and Marketing Manager with Ring Plus, a dynamic start up telecommunications company based in Beverly Hills, California. In 2016 Thelma joined The Next Idea as Project Manager and Marketing Consultant, and has worked on multiple accounts including: Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, Maria's Italian Kitchen, Poke O, The Hungry Trader, Phood Farmacy, Viva Vegam, and Steak N Shake. Thelma was Key Note Speaker on Marketing, Past, Present and Future, at the Bahrain Hospitality Forum 2017, and is Editor of all Client and TNI written communications.

Joshua Merel

Josh is a Vice President of Alliant Insurance Services, Inc. A national insurance brokerage firm based in Newport Beach California.

After 20 years as a restaurant operator and franchisee, Josh made the transition to the insurance business in 2000. Utilizing his experience as a businessman and restaurateur, Josh has developed a unique and effective approach as an insurance professional. His client base includes multi-unit restaurant operators, mid-market manufacturers, contractors, and retailers.

Sara Rivera Partner/Senior HR Consultant/Employment Law & Employee Relations Specialist

Sara holds a degree in Business Administration from Wagner College in New York City. An immigrant from Central America, Sara quickly knew that her professional career would be in any field that was about advocating for people and providing resources for their betterment. Sara’s professional bilingual career began in the field of Risk Management for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. There she sat on the Safety Committee Board for 5 years. She was then initiated to the Human Resources field for the hospitality industry with Hyatt Hotels and Resorts in 1992, where she mastered all disciplines of HR with a focus on Employment Law, Compliance and Training. In search to further her career, Sara accepted the position of Director Human Resources with Fairmont Hotels in Santa Monica, CA. There, she successfully negotiated a 5-year contract and established a good working relationship with Local 814, H.E.R.E.. During her tenure, she worked in both union and non-union environments with a focus on Labor Law and Immigration Compliance.

Andy Hobbs

Andy Hobbs is a native of Orange County, California. He served four years in the U.S. Army as an Infantryman and four years in the California Army National Guard, again as an Infantryman. He's a graduate of Cal State Dominguez Hills and earned his master of arts, organizational management, from the University of Phoenix.

Andy's experience in repair and maintenance includes the Disneyland Resort, Montage Laguna Beach, Montage Beverly Hills, the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, the Monarch Bay Beach Resort, and El Gallo Giro Restaurants. He's also an adjunct professor at Fullerton Community College in the Construction Technology Program. In his free time he enjoys cooking, microbreweries, reading, and spending time with his family. Andy currently resides in Anaheim, California with his wife and daughter.

Talya Raphael

Talya Raphael, MSc is a medical student with a Masters in fundamental virology from the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France). Her numerous laboratory placements have included analysis of retroviral sequence upregulation in HIV-1 positive individuals in the Infectious Diseases Department at King’s College London (England) with Dr. Stuart Neil; epidemiological analysis of circulating enteroviruses and human parechoviruses in outpatients with influenza-like illness in the Lombardy region during the 2014-2015 winter season in the Virology Laboratory of the Università degli studi di Milano (Italy), with Dr. Sandro Binda, which was published in the European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE) and in the Società Italiana di Igiene (SItI); and lastly a work placement at the Pasteur Institute (Paris) in the « Virus and Immunity » laboratory run by Dr. Olivier Schwartz where her final year MSc thesis was entitled “a mycobacterial virulence factor modulates the synthesis of the HIV-1 viral envelope in vitro”.