As of December 30, Mike Ahaesy is our new Senior Facilities Manager! The Dighton, MA resident has been with the Taco Bell brand for 32 years and the Desert de Oro (DDO) family for four. We’re so excited to tap Mike’s expertise as he begins overseeing facilities for our entire portfolio of restaurants.

Change is Good

In 2022, we acquired the franchisee that Mike had been working for since 1992. Over the first 30 years of his career, he’d climbed the ranks, starting as a team member, then enjoying stints as a Shift Leader, Assistant General Manager (AGM), Senior AGM, Restaurant General Manager (RGM), Marketing Training Manager (MTM) and finally Area Coach (AC) at the time of our acquisition.

Though DDO would prove to be quite different from his former employer (they owned 34 restaurants; we have 350), Mike was determined to keep his Taco Bell tenure going. However, he did use our acquisition to make a bit of a change: he switched over to our facilities team!

From Operations to Facilities

When Mike joined the DDO team, he was presented with the opportunity to become a Facilities Supervisor, which would be a lateral move for him. Although the new job had a lower salary, we worked with Mike to ensure he maintained the pay rate he had built up over the course of his career.

It didn’t take long for Mike to realize that facilities are his “thing”! Just one year later, he was promoted to Facilities Manager and began overseeing our Texas and Utah locations in addition to the New England ones.

“I’m obsessed with anything mechanical – boats, motorcycles, antique cars … this job blends perfectly with my hobbies.”

Mike Ahaesy, Senior Facilities Manager

After much success as a Facilities Manager, Mike was promoted to Senior Facilities Manager in December. In addition to leading facilities management for the entire DDO portfolio, Mike oversees one manager, three supervisors, 19 technicians and hundreds of vendors.

The main difference between operations and facilities, Mike shares, is that he’s doing a lot more behind the scenes work as opposed to dealing directly with guests and team members. Additionally, there’s a lot less “gray” area. He shares that it’s pretty easy to know the course of action for fixing a hole in the wall rather than, for example, a complex HR issue.

That’s not to say that Mike’s years in operations were all for naught. They gave him a special skill set: understanding exactly what his colleagues in operations need to do their jobs well, which is knowledge he’s been able to impart upon his facilities team.

Starting Off Strong

The first few months as Senior Facilities Manager have been great, Mike says. He’s spent a lot of time earning trust with the team members he oversees and has even traveled to meet them in person. These trips are something Mike doesn’t mind at all: he gets to take his wife and daughter along! As big adventurers, they love having the opportunity to see the country. 

Mike is excited to continue nurturing his work relationships and growing as a Senior Facilities Manager — and we’re so excited to see where this role takes him. Congratulations, Mike!