Building the Best Crew in the Pizza Business

Making hand-crafted pizza requires more than great dough and premium ingredients—it requires skilled artisans who are fanatical about quality. For 40 years and counting Pagliacci Pizza has passed the mastery of techniques and skills in the artisan tradition, a master of the craft training an apprentice. Developing skilled crew members has been key to this tradition as we have grown. Evidence of this commitment is the fact that our store managers average 13 years of experience—an exceptional figure. Moreover, among many others with 20-year-plus tenures, the man who heads our dough production, Edgar Bobadilla, started working for Pagliacci in 1985.

Now, deepening our commitment to building the best crew in the pizza business, we are creating a new department dedicated solely to training and development. John Clifford will be the senior director. John began working for Pagliacci in 2003 at the Broadway store. Two years later, he was promoted to general manager at Sand Point. From 2012 through the present John has been Pagliacci’s Director of Operations.

“This is a natural role for John to step into,” says Jeff Woodruff, Pagliacci’s VP of Operations. “With this department, we are going to dedicate more resources, more time, to ensure people we promote are in a position to be successful from day one. That’s a big job. John thinks like an engineer and is a strong communicator. He’s also devoted to customer service and is very skilled in the kitchen.”

John’s department will provide essential training support to Pagliacci’s 135 managers, developing operational standards and improving training materials. You’ll be as likely to find John in the stores, working hands-on with the crew, as you will to find him behind a desk. His department will see to it that every crew member has the right tools and the right resources to master their job.

“There is an opportunity to do a better job welcoming new employees, training them to standards and affording opportunities for new responsibilities,” says Matt Galvin, co-owner of Pagliacci. “John is perfectly suited to lead this initiative. I look forward to seeing what John and his team can do to enhance our commitment to Always Delivering Excellence.”